North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 01/21/1998

It needs to be done. It's Wednesday January 21st. Tonight. Today I have sung and as governor and executive order it is number one 28 proclaiming this year 1998 officially as the year of the volunteer in North Carolina a call to action for Parkville volunteers in North Carolina. Noel. Good evening everyone and welcome to a special edition of North Carolina now.

Our guest tonight is Congressman Bob Etheridge Hill joins us a little later with an update on the proposed national tobacco settlement and how it may impact Tarheel tobacco farmers. However we demoed devote most of our time this evening to volunteer efforts in North Carolina. Earlier today Governor Hahn declared 1998 as the year of the volunteer in North Carolina. This announcement helped kick off the two day Governor summit on America's Promise and volunteerism in Greensboro. This summit follows up on the president's national volunteerism summit held last year and works in partnership with America's Promise the national volunteerism initiative. Tonight Sonia Williams takes us to the state summit and introduces us to a group of local volunteers helping in national volunteer efforts. Beverly Jones is the director of the community service program at North Carolina Central University. Her work to get other universities and colleges across the state to join volunteer efforts earned her an invitation to President Clinton's national summit on volunteerism last year.

Volunteer. Programs like the ones at North Carolina Central are part of national initiatives to promote volunteerism by hundreds of other universities across the state and across the country. There are basically two tiers to the program. Number one we have a graduation requirement of 15 kloc hours of service. If a student stays here for years which we hope they do they will do one hundred twenty hours of service which is part of the requirement. The second tier of the program is to faculty to engage them in transforming their curriculum so their courses will also connect with service. We're trying to help faculty to understand that effective teaching is one in which students learn more by doing so is moving the theories of what you learn in a particular course to practice. Many students at North Carolina Central University are putting their coursework theories to practice. Part of national initiative that gives students a discount and America retains a national

literacy program designed to help all children really independently and well by the end of the grade. Our students go out every day and they say provide support. They are very very strong in terms of trying to help with vocabulary and assisting the students as much as possible to make sure that they are gaining in certain types of competency so they can move to the next level when working with me and she is making tremendous progress. And every day that I show up and I work with her is that she's more interested in what she's doing and she's really successful you know very proud of me. I do it because it's something that I plan to do in the near future as a future educator is very important and was out there Wes was in the classroom. The different vibe and the different attitudes of a particular students or students in general so. That's my reason for

doing this program. Regardless of the reasons people volunteer Governor Hunt believes simply volunteer isn't that important. And that's the reason for the governor's summit on volunteer isn't to promote greater participation in community service. But what we learn in the next two days. More importantly what we do with it when we go home how we take it back into our communities how we reenergize ourselves and involve those in our communities with us. Those things will determine what does happen in our future. We can literally change that future. It is within our hands with God's help. To make our communities whole to give opportunities to set for success and happiness to all of our people inside of the 100 last hundred Kisa plans including state and local officials city business leaders representatives on property aberrations

along with Wiley tutors from every county in the state we have it were summit is focusing on ways to improve the lives of children in North Carolina. And one is arguing all sectors of the community to work together in order to be more effective. Community leaders hope this summit will help jumpstart brawl and terrorism across the state. Governor Hyde says North Carolina has a great need for volunteers particularly when it comes to our youth. There are in this state of North Carolina one point eight million children under the age of 18. It is estimated that 200000 or more of those children will wind up with serious problems in their lives without intervention and help. Giving Hans message an even broader perspective. Former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley discussed America's economy and how it affects families and the Uni's to volunteer.

We often get caught up in the rat race of day to day life. A lot of times that's necessary because of what families need to make ends meet. And therefore for those individuals that don't have those kind of economic pressures because they're older or because they have more resources it's tremendously important that they find a way to give back. Radley believes each individual has the ability to touch a child's life in a way that includes direct that child's future life. Today's featured speaker early President of the American Red Cross and Solsbury made it or is it but drove that message home by adding that every person no matter what age race or social status race and really can make a difference. We learned this lesson in school children but now as school children themselves who are at risk who have been left behind by a distracted society

our own parents generation tempered by the Great Depression and matured by a global war found the time and heart to nurture us. And we owe our children nothing less. Donor says the challenge before us now is to retrieve lost children nation's future something volunteers like those at North Carolina Central are doing. One child at a time. Sonja Williams joins us now in song and this is a two day event. What's on tap for tomorrow. Well and tomorrow morning there will be a panel discussion entitled a vision for the 21st century. And that discussion will feature many national leaders in the volunteerism efforts. And then at lunchtime we'll have Dr. Maya Angelou as the featured speaker so we're going to bring our viewers some of her comments on volunteerism. And then we're going to take a look at how individual counties come up with their volunteer strategies. Well that sounds great We'll look forward to it tomorrow. OK thanks John. Coming up an update on the proposed national tobacco settlement with U.S. Representative Bob Etheridge. But first let's get an update on the rest of today's statewide headlines with Michel Louis. Hi Mets.

Hello Shannon. Good evening everyone. US House Speaker Newt Gingrich was in Charlotte last night to talk politics. Gingrich spoke before a partisan crowd of about 28 hundred people and said his focus this year is on maintaining Republican control in the U.S. House of Representatives. During a press interview Gingrich ventured his opinion on two North Carolina U.S. congressional seats saying he thinks the GOP will capture the Eighth Congressional District seat held by retiring Democratic U.S. Representative Bill Hefner. And Gingrich said the Republicans also have a shot at the seat held by Democratic U.S. Representative David Price. The House speaker also said he will wait until sometime in 1909 to decide whether to run for president in the year 2000. The city of Charlotte may be in the running as the host city for the GOP national convention in the year 2000. A delegation of Charlotte officials fresh from a Republican National Committee meeting say the queen city stands a chance against Chicago Philadelphia and Senate Tonio Texas to win selection. The bipartisan group calling itself Carolina 2000 says Charlotte would have to raise

between 10 and 25 million dollars to underwrite convention costs. Carolina 2000 has also put in an initial bid for the Democratic National Convention. A Wake County judge has dismissed a contempt citation against former DMV employee Algy Toomer and three attorneys Toomer and his lawyers had been cited for contempt by a legislative panel when they ignored subpoenas to appear before the committee investigating the $100000 settlement paid to Toomer Wake County Superior Court Judge James Spencer agreed with the tumor's attorneys that the subpoenas were invalid. Judge Spencer said that because the subpoenas were not valid the defendants were not required to appear before a committee and they could not be held in contempt. Attorneys for the state say new subpoenas will be issued to compel the four to appear. Beginning February 1st new hog farming regulations will take effect in the largest hog producing county in the nation. Under the new rules new and expanding hog operations in Duplin County will be required to apply for a permit and submit to a $200

inspection by the County health director. In addition the County Board of Health has agreed that a livestock farm declared a nuisance to its neighbors can be ordered to clean up the operation. The rules are said to be patterned after those currently in effect in several other North Carolina counties. Lieutenant governor Dennis Wicker sends a one day special session may be called in order to secure 80 million dollars to help uninsured children. About 70000 children could be covered under a state plan to pay for health coverage for the uninsured young workers as the special session could be called for some time in March because it may take months for the federal government to review the state's application and the review must be completed by September. The names of 21 North Carolina health professionals are included on a list of more than fourteen hundred doctors nationwide who have been barred from receiving Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements because of student loan defaults. The health professionals include dentists pharmacists chiropractors and a number of other medical care providers. The total amount of money owed nationwide is more than

one hundred seven million dollars borrowed under the U.S. health education assistance loan program. The average amount owed is seventy six thousand dollars. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather. High temperatures will be in the 40s across most of the state. Wilmington may see highs in the mid 50s. Cloudy skies are in the forecast for the entire state. Rain is also expected statewide most likely in the afternoon. In business news the State Court of Appeals has ruled the Department of Revenue owes Polaroid corporation nearly half a million dollars plus interest from end come taxes wrongly collected from the company in 1901. Polaroid had listed a nine hundred twenty four million dollar lawsuit award as non-business income on its corporate income tax return that year. But the revenue department reclassified the award as business and come and assessed income taxes. The award was given to Polaroid after the company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Eastman Kodak in 1976. The appeals court ruled while Polaroid was protecting its business by protecting its patents. Neither that action nor the award could be

considered part of Polaroids regular business. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. 1998 could be a big year for tobacco farmers in our state in Minnesota today attorneys continue

to select jurors for tobacco related lawsuit. And just last week the tobacco industry agreed to pay Texas fifteen point three billion dollars over the next 25 years to avoid going to court over that state's lawsuit to recover the cost of treating smoking related illnesses. Now all this comes as Congress gets set to debate the proposed 368 billion dollar national tobacco settlement. And here tonight to update us on the proposed tobacco settlement is U.S. Representative Bob Etheridge who represents North Carolina's second congressional district. Congressman thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. To get everyone up to speed to begin with when we're talking about the national tobacco settlement what exactly are we talking about. Probably you want to be one of the four biggest issues we deal with in Congress. Truth is we have probably this large national health took place several years ago before I was in Congress. It really is a settlement entered into by the companies. The cigarette manufacturing companies

the attorneys general from the states who had their litigation and his attempt to bring all of it on want to embroil and settle it. And when it was announced last June I raised the issue one of the first to raise and said the bombers need to have some input in it. They need to be involved they were left out. And of course since a lot of folks have talked about it and a lot of debate has gone on how we could involve farmers the administration in their five points that they set out earlier. You had the president talking about the farmers had to be protected and be taken care of and but it is a major piece of legislation when we get back in. And the bill does get there and it starts to move. It could have. It could go through as many as 10 committees in the House and Senate. So it is a substantial piece of legislation. It certainly will be one of the largest pieces of. Litigation the legislation shortly and maybe in this century you have been meeting with farmers across North Carolina over the past week holding

tobacco town hall meetings. What have the farmers here in North Carolina been concerned about when they talk to you about the tobacco settlement. Probably the biggest thing is unease in this uncertainty. You know all of us like to have some sense of what the future is going to be How we going to be able to keep farming what features and I think it will. But I've heard a variety of things we're going to continue as you well know with the meeting to night we're having a meeting in Franklin County and another one tomorrow night in Johnston. We've held for maybe five meetings really. I've heard a variety of things some say you know we want to make sure we still have a future. Others say we want to keep a program so we can at least have some stability. Others are nervous about it and say you know we need to have money to have a buyout and someone a combination of that and I think over the next several weeks and I've said to him we need to be cautious about how we move let's get all the facts before we decide where we're going to go because in the end the

farmers have to be involved and I'm talking about the growers and the allotment holders and they have to have some measure of protection because if the companies want it and there's going to be some for everyone else certainly the people who get up in the morning who farm who sweat who provide roughly a billion dollars worth of income to this state. This product in North Carolina they have to have some security too in whatever settlement is provided. As you talk with your colleagues in Congress and find out more the details from the proposed settlement how do you see Tar Hill tobacco farmers being impacted most by a settlement. That is a good question and I wish I could answer that right and I'm not you have a good answer at this point. As a toll of farmers in Congress by and large the members feel good about farmers. There is there is a high level of own part of some form of a mistrust of

trust on the part of the companies themselves. But the farmers also understand they can't totally be separated. They need the companies to produce so they can continue to have a product source for their products. So it's going to be a fight and all of us have to walk to get there as we not only work on this settlement but work on legislation that I think all the farmers will support and certainly people in this state that we make sure that we do not have access to cigarettes for smoking for children. That has got to stop and I have not heard one single form at one single form we've held so far. I disagree with that statement they reaffirmed their commitment to that and I think we will see some come out of this session. When you look at issues like the quota system and other issues that of course are big issues for farmers as you go back into Congress this session what changes are you going to propose in the tobacco settlement as it currently stands.

That's why we have been to meetings to try to get him poor farmers. Several things we want will make sure that if a quota is not there now an opportunity for farmers then they have to be compensated it is I look at it farmers and people who own land is just like people who bought stock on the stock market. They've invested their money over the years we have people in North Carolina who invested their money in farmland. Many of them bought about what people call its quota. The right to have that I purchased that with with a heart of money and they say for that many folks are using that active growers as well as retirees for their retirement is the better income stream. And and we shouldn't just arbitrarily take it away unless they're compensated for and I don't think that'll happen. And I think members of Congress need to understand how that investment was made is unique. It's not like anything else in any commodity program that we have and farmers have said that to me. So I think if we talk to members of Congress we have to remind them of the difference in that.

Well Congressman Etheridge I know a lot of people in North Carolina are going to be watching closely over the next session as this is debated. And we thank you for coming and sharing your information with us today. Shannon thank you good within I would say to the farmers and others who are listening this is not going to be an easy issue. It's going to take a lot of are working together there are going to be changes. And we have to work together to make sure the changes are the right changes for the people of North Carolina in this country. Great. Well Congressman Bob Etheridge is holding a tobacco town meeting with farmers tonight that's already underway in Lewisburg at the Lewisburg college auditorium. The final meeting will be held tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. at the Johnston County Courthouse in Smithville. One issue highlighted during today's volunteer summit is the need for more mentors for at risk children

and nowhere is this need greater than in our public school system on a given day there may be as many as 700 North Carolina school students who are considered home bound unable to attend school in the traditional fashion. And as Ted Arison reports the education for these students must be made available for as long as a particular circumstance exists. Meet jacob and J.D. and Perry. And their teacher Mary Shannon a hometown student can be a a student a new mother or a student. She's pregnant and the doctor has recommended that that student stop going to school for medical reasons. If it's a pregnancy in I would serve the student for six to eight weeks after delivery. Well normally she brings the work they give

me and explains it all to me and asked me have any questions and if she'll answer them for me in the end I sit here and she helps me work home or work in whatever I get through if she takes back to the take yours for me. Daughter Trinity is seven weeks old and since she was born Jamie and Lori Shannon have worked together on a variety of subjects. Math is G-d's favorite English is her toughest but she's tackled it all including writing a poem. It's a character choosing a character gone on a pilgrimage and I have to describe the parents like the body and dress features and water for the reason going on a pilgrimage and their transportation and their visits with Jeannie are scheduled so her mother can look after training during the lessons and daycare is planned for Jamie's return to school. While she spoke she sleeps

she gets up to five and seven o'clock in the morning and must stand before me. But she got where she was to study and everything. Students who are in the exceptional children's program have been suspended from school. I serve those students after the eleventh day of suspension. Sometimes that means more is teaching subjects that challenge both student and teacher. She works with Perry on auto mechanics was far longer beyond this you know just one scene they were trying to further into the combustion chamber. Perry allowed us to sit in on his class but preferred not to be interviewed. The teachers provide their work the classroom work that they're doing. I teach that to help make sure that I can completely assignments. Depending on the student's ability to

you know sometimes it might just mean that all I do is is act as a liaison collect the work from the school and not turn it in. I had one student who was in the top 10 of her class and of course she knew everything that she was supposed to do. So I was pretty much a liaison person for her. I may have another student who needs a lot of teaching so I may have to take the material and go kind of slowly and make sure that the student understands it and then leave work with me to do independently at home with my cane and Jacob admits his temper led to the suspension that brought him here like Perry Jacobs instruction takes place in a classroom with the Alamance bowing to school age central office. Jacob wants to be a marine biologist but he admits he has some other lessons to learn first. All of this. Go to war and control my temper.

Lori Shannon says the degree of motivation varies from student to student as a category. Shannon says the new mothers and those students who are homebound due to illness or injury tend to be better motivated. Other students require a morning wake up calls and repeat calls when they don't show up. This is Mrs. Schuneman one room opened but it probably would be a safety net especially for those students who have been suspended because I thought that if a student has been suspended and they're already 16 or they turn 16 during the time they're out of school if they don't have this service are probably going to just go ahead and quit without this instruction. Jeannie and Jacobs lies would be much different. Well I guess I would have to go back next year and not go this year. I'd probably be a German school. These students are considered as part of the school system's average daily membership state and federal

funding is apportioned accordingly. Well that's it for tonight's show please join us again tomorrow night for continuing coverage of Governor Hons volunteerism summit in Greensboro. Tomorrow night we'll hear from the conference's speaker Wake Forest University professor and author Maya Angelou. Have a great evening everyone we'll see you back here tomorrow night.