North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 03/30/1998

The It's Monday March 30th. Tonight on North Carolina now a conversation with Governor Hong. Hello everyone I'm arrayed I'm a tri Welcome to North Carolina now. A big thank you to all of our U.N. sea TV viewers who helped us surpass this year's festival goal of two and a half million dollars. Our final total this year was two million six hundred seventy three thousand three hundred twenty five

dollars. Thank you to everyone who made that possible. Well lawmakers are back at work this evening for the resumption of the special legislative session. The Republican led House in the Democratic led Senate must reach a compromise on competing bills to extend health care coverage to uninsured children. The lawmakers are working up against a soft deadline of April 1st in order to qualify for 80 million dollars in federal money to help fund the plan. I had an opportunity to speak with Governor Hunt who insists that resolving differences between the Democratic and Republican plans should not come at the expense of the children. Governor thank you for taking the time to be with us tonight. Right now the General Assembly is wrangling over two separate plans to provide health insurance for uninsured children throughout North Carolina. How do you feel as though your plan is better than the plan being advocated by the Republicans. Well let's say first of all they're talking about the right thing as a matter of fact they're competing to have the best plan to cover

children and provide health insurance for those who need it the most. I'm delighted to see the debate on this subject and I'm pleased that we had them come to town to do this. I think the payment plan that that I've suggested that is passed the Senate is the better plan because it provides the best benefits including helping kids who can't see the bottom blackboard in school who can't hear the teacher. They get that kind of help. It covers working families who don't make enough to pay for health insurance for their children. These are the ones we want to cover first that's the most important thing for us to do. Then if we can do some more good and the Republicans have have proposed Well they would they would leave out some of those I've just talked about whom I think need it the most wouldn't have as good a plan for them. But they do propose some additional help to some of the families. We want to look at what we could do in this other respect.

But the most important thing is to have the best plan for children of working families who don't make enough to pay for health insurance for their children. As the conference committee works out the differences between the two plans what provisions of the Democratic plan do you feel should not be compromised. Well I'm not going to get into talking about what. You know drawing any lines in the sand that kind of thing. The job here now is to work out the best approach. I stand behind the Senate plan and I appreciate the work that the that that they put into it and all the folks in the Senate and the house. I want to get the best plan but I'm going to push for a really good plan. And by the way four hundred thirty thousand kids in this state on Medicaid from poor families many of them all welfare already have the kind of plan that I'm recommending. I want to extend that that good plan to 71000 more kids and in this case their parents are

working. They just don't make enough to be able to pay for health insurance. So that ought to be our first concern. Let's do that first with a good plan like these other kids already have and then whatever we can do beyond that. Let's try to do although short of the legislature's going to be look at it at how we're going to fund the next step in increasing teacher salaries dealing with juvenile crime to make our community safer. Is funding smart start all these other things so we we've got to consider how we're going to spend our money we only have so much. But the first thing is to help those kids who need help the most recently the Juvenile Justice Committee came out with its list of Langley recommendations on how to curb the growth rate of juvenile crime in North Carolina. First of all do those recommendations have a price tag how high is that price tag and what will the state do to be able to implement those plans. Well the recommendations of the Commission on juvenile crime are very important.

I'm very pleased with the work they have done. They recommend in essence that we really change our system dramatically so that we protect the public. We help kids who need help. And it's going to take some real resources to do this. That's why in dealing with the children's health thing we need to first of all help the kids whose parents can't afford insurance. We need to help them first and then think about other kids doing more for the families in light of what we need to do about juvenile crime about improving our schools and so forth. But we're going to recommend major changes. And one of the things that has really hit me in the last few days we've all read and seen about the terrible tragedy in Arkansas. In addition to pushing kids who are violent who really ought to be punished I want us to think a lot more about how we're going to prevent crime how we're going to prevent young people from getting

off into a life of crime either doing horrible things or just you know the kinds of things you do day in and day out and get off on the wrong course. I really believe that if communities get involved we can get enough mentors for these kids and tutors and coaches. If we put enough resources if every county has a council or group that is focusing on preventing crime intervening when a kid first gets off on the wrong path I believe we can do a lot to make this state safer. And that's why it's so important that we have the resources in the short session beginning in May to make our people safer and do the right thing about juvenile crime. You have been named chairman of a national education center looking at higher education can you tell us a little bit about that. Well I'm pleased to take on this responsibility as chairman of the National Center on higher education and public policy. It's really a group that's going to advise leaders at the state and the national level and

within colleges universities about what kind of policy should we have to help encourage more kids to go to college. And I mean kids of all income levels from Ork all kinds of backgrounds. How do we help our colleges run more efficiently. They have to think about efficiency just like everybody else does. How do we help see that that we eliminate this learning deficit that we have today in some schools about half the kids who start to college never finish and college they call that the retention problem. In public schools we call that the dropout problem. We need to focus on that and figure ways to do it better. And we must continue to focus on quality and instruction in schools. These are things I'll be serving with a very important group from all over the country. Business CEO former governors legislate tours educators to come up with ideas and

ways we can help each state do a better job of helping our kids get that college education. Go on to head to higher education and really prepare themselves for the world of work and good citizenship. On the issue of providing health insurance to uninsured children. Governor Hunt says he believes the federal government will give the state a day or two leeway from that April 1st deadline. But he does hope that the compromise between the Republican and Democratic versions can be reached this week. Well still ahead the latest on the science of addiction. But first here's Michel Louis with a summary of today's statewide news. Good evening Mitch. Thanks Marina. Good evening everyone. It appears that a portion of the federal money being set aside for state wide programs to protect uninsured children will come from an increase in cigarette taxes. So far the federal government has approved a tax increase of 10 cents a pack. Beginning in the year 2000 and another 5 cents per pack coming in 2002. State Health and Human Services secretary David Bruton says it isn't

accurate to say tobacco taxes will pay for children's insurance since the money has not been specifically targeted for that purpose. But a former R.J. Reynolds executive turned state legislator says a congressional research report indicates additional cigarette taxes will help to fund the federal government's 20 billion dollar insurance program. Teachers at 15 low performing schools are planning to boycott a mandatory state required general knowledge test. The North Carolina Association of educators is backing the boycott and is also filing a class action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law. Teachers who are required to take the test are being instructed to go to the testing site sign their name and leave a copy of a letter written by NCAA lawyers. The letter will state the teacher will not take the test until the court rules on the suit. NCAA officials will be at the test sites to support each teacher refusing to take the June test. You NC system president Molly broad is asking the General Assembly for 18 million dollars to help the university system increase distant learning via

the Internet. Broad sees the Internet being used by the university to serve three types of students. North Carolina adults living far from a campus corporate workers seeking retraining and international scholars looking for U.S. degrees. School officials hope virtual classrooms will help the universe and university eventually bring in more revenue and help schools deal with the unexpected and Roman boom over the next eight years. The State Board of Elections officials believe voter turnout in the May 5th primary will be low. They cite the 1994 primaries in which only 29 percent of Tarheel voters went to the polls. 1994 was the last primary election without a presidential race on the ballot. The high profile race in North Carolina this year is where the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican lock for cloth all 12 of the state's U.S. congressional seats will be on the ballot in November. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather. Temperatures will be in the low to mid 70s for the mountains while the rest of the state will see highs in the low to mid 80s. Cloudy skies are in the forecast for western North Carolina while the rest of the state will

see partly cloudy skies. And in business news private shareholders of the North Carolina railroad are meeting tomorrow to vote on a proposal to sell their 1.1 million shares to the state. The state has offered to buy each share for sixty six dollars in an effort to gain control of the railroad. The state already own 75 percent of the three hundred seventeen miles of track. The buyout will mean the state will have complete control of the railroad for the first time. Although some shareholders object to the shares being sold the buyout is expected to be approved. A poll of voters and for science and Guilford County shows the proposal to use tax dollars to fund construction of a major league baseball park is lacking sufficient support to pass with only six weeks to the may vote. The proposal trails almost two to one. A poll of four hundred twenty eight likely voters found 61 percent of them opposed to the 1 percent milk tax and the 50 Cent ticket tax while only 31 percent endorse the measure. Proponents of the tax say a December poll showing 71 percent opposed to the tax

indicates the effort to pass the measure is gaining ground. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. Tonight immediately following North Carolina now you and CTV will begin airing a five part special

series called Bill Moyers on addiction close to home. The series looks into the physiological causes of addiction. Earlier I had the opportunity to discuss the latest medical advances in the field of addiction with Dr. Fulton Cruz the director of the bowl Center for Alcohol Studies. And you can see Chapel Hill and I asked him to define addiction. Addiction is a mental disease involves becoming preoccupied with a drug. In most cases even in the face of negative consequences. So it's a mental disease that very much involves an individual who is very absorbed with obtaining and using a drug even though they know it's disrupting their life their work their family. And their health so individuals who have cirrhosis and liver damage for example can't necessarily stop drinking even though they know it's killing them.

And you brought along a little diagram to help us understand this a little bit better so let's go ahead and put that up on the screen now and then you can continue to describe for us what what is addiction is you were talking about it's a mental disease. Sure well what's really exciting in neuroscience now and the studies we're doing at the center and other places is that we know all addictive drugs work in the same part of the brain in an area we would call the reward center. And in fact it's a very small part of the brain and that would be where on this you know this diagram involves primarily the blue circle in the middle there which projects then forward to the left of the screen to an orange area that we would call the nucleus accumbens and every addictive drug activates that pathway in the brain which is actually drawn much larger there than it really is it's it's a fairly small part of the brain but it involves transmitters dopamine and serotonin that seem to sort of say pay

attention and that feels good. And all of the drugs that we know alcohol cocaine. Vallium Librium those drugs amphetamines opiates or activate this pathway and animals will actually inject drugs directly into that part of the brain and will work actually very hard that is will push a lever to specifically put the drug only into that part of the brain. And so we're fairly confident that drugs that are taken orally or by peripheral injection or by smoking actually are taken because they go to that part of the brain and activate that part of the brain. So are there some people who that part of the brain is a little bit stronger and that's why they become addicts. Well actually one of the main hypotheses is about the opposite of that that that there's a deficiency of the reward system and that that

induces a more craving type of behavior and perhaps a more compulsive behavior. And that's so there for those people who are risk. They seem to be replacing perhaps this neuro chemical difference with by becoming addicted to the drug. And so drugs like cocaine specifically act on the dopamine release. But in alcoholics where we really have more data because there are many more alcoholics than there are opiate addicts or cocaine addicts. There is data to show that alcoholics actually have lower levels of serotonin and dopamine at least by looking at their metabolites and by other measures that we have to try and get at human brain chemistry. The data would suggest that those who have low levels of those are more likely to become addicted to alcohol and other drugs.

So there are some segments of the society that believe that alcoholics and other drug addicts are particularly weak people and that it's a moral failing but you're telling us this isn't true. No this isn't true and actually you know I I don't understand that concept at all. I guess in some ways I do because all of us have self control and many of us like a glass of wine or two and don't have a problem with that. But also we noted Betty Ford and making and many of our most famous authors and most talented people have actually been alcoholics and admitted that they have this addiction problem. It's clearly not a moral issue it's a physiological issue that's related to a innate risk which when coupled with certain environmental and behavioral situations then lead to addiction. So this is probably a big question for the time that we have left but then knowing this how do people avoid becoming addicts.

Well it's clear that one way to avoid addiction is by involving oneself in social activities and social behavioral structures that reduce the opportunities for drug abuse that addicts tend to become isolated individuals from their families from their communities and. It starts addiction tends to start with in adolescence in fact although adolescence may not be fully addicted the beginning of the experimentation and drug abuse and the isolation starts at a young age and it's clearly been shown that individuals who are closer to the family where the parents are more involved early on trying to reduce experimentation or at least talk about the risks of experimentation that could lead to addiction that those individuals tend to do better than individuals who are isolated and don't have that type of family or church or other community type of input.

Dr. I only got to half my question so you're going to have to come back but we're out of time for now. Thanks for being there. Thank you. All right. And don't forget the special with Bill Moyers airs tonight immediately following North Carolina now. Tonight we profile an amazing Tarheel inventor an entrepreneur who has a decidedly bright future ahead of him. Billy Bonds has the story. The incandescent light hasn't changed all that much since Tom Edison turned night into day in 1879. Light bulbs are awfully fragile they

suck up a lot of power and they have to be replaced over and over again. How many North Carolinians does it take to replace a light bulb. Just one. Dr. Isaac Horton inventor of the light pump which is commanding the attention of Engineers and investors throughout the world. Don't expect to be wowed by the looks of the light. It's a plain black box with fiber optic cable protruding from it. The light source is inside the box and it pumps light through the cable much like water is forced through a hose. The impressive part is on the other end. Bright light whoring out of the cable through whatever type of fixture you choose. A small lamp or a large chandelier. Look ma no bulb no heat no electricity just bright cool illumination if you prefer colored light there's a pump equipped with little filters that can make the light change color as often as you like.

Dr. Horton's light and may make neon lighting obsolete neon tubes are hot. Easily shattered and full of toxic gas. The light part human being is cool can't break and uses no gas and it consumes less electricity than the man who started the light pump revolution is a Goldsboro native whose family background profoundly affects his business style war as we know and we love to talk about our business. Number two I'm the son of a Preacher Man the grandson of a creature preacher man and I think I've got a little bit of that spirit in me as well but I would never. Well I'll try to put it in a box for you. The company has locations in Irvine California. We have a facility in San Juan Capistrano. We do our research there are a lot of our manufacturing there. We have a course facility here in Research Triangle Park with our

corporate headquarters being here and then a manufacturing facility across the street from us. We also have about 10000 square feet in Brussels where we're building our video screens. We have offices in Tokyo and Australia. We have offices in Atlanta Los Angeles Chicago where we have sales offices that services those areas founded in 1995 remote source lighting International has sold well over 10 million dollars worth of like Palm products. Spectacular backlit signs and a light filled steroids ad presented to the television studios of MSNBC. Super Bowl contenders rush on to the field beneath a fancy lettering illuminated by light palms Ruby's Restaurant and Taco Bells. The air touch building in San Francisco. A church in Washington D.C. Bally's Casino and the supermarket refrigerators all wear

brighter faces because of this revolutionary type of light. The light prop saves up to 95 percent on your electric bill and requires maintenance only every 10 to 20 years. There's no electricity at the light source. So if you need to shorten the cable you just whack off a piece no electrical contractors license needed. The light pump safely illuminates problem areas such as swimming proves shower stalls children's rooms and nursing homes. And it may show up soon in your living room. The moment you plug you turn a light bulb on a conventional light it begins to dance. And when they say that it will last 1000 hours 5000 hours. And they don't tell you that during that time they are getting dumber and dumber and dumber. So most people recognize it when they go into their homes is that if they put out the bulbs there at the same time that you know two or

three months later the house is 50 percent darker than it was at the beginning with the perpetual light source it does not. It only dance if we want it there because there is no filament to burn away the perpetual light source is this company's latest breakthrough. It looks like something that fell off a spaceship but in fact it's a spherical light that puts out as much illumination as 68 100 watt bulbs its light source is a sulfur compound which when stimulated by microwaves gives off a bright light that is intensified by a patented process and forced through the cable by trial runs indicate this device will run twenty years before the light source needs any maintenance. Isaac Horton and his staff of scientists are not in this game alone. They've negotiated partnership agreements with dozens of giants including Con Edison of New York Carolina Power and Light optical cable corporation and

Yama Corp. one of Japan's largest lighting companies. Horton and his corporate partners share technology marketing efforts and profits. It's just amazing that once you free yourself of the shackles of the light you're magination can run wow. Isn't that amazing. Now if you're making a note to yourself to call your broker in the morning to buy a stake in the remote source lighting company Well you're in for a disappointment. The company is still closely held by Isaac ordering company employees and some big time private investors. Horton says it will be a year or two before his company goes public. Well that's all we have time for tonight. We'll see you tomorrow. Good night everyone.