North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 12/13/1995

Or no. It's Wednesday December 13th and tonight helping criminal drug abusers break their habits in North Carolina now. Hello everyone I'm Marina matura Thanks for joining us for this Wednesday edition of North Carolina now. Tonight

we aired a third of the way interviews with North Carolina's Republican gubernatorial candidates. Tonight's interview was with Robin Hayes. Also tonight Don Mauer is in the kitchen cooking up something special for the holidays. But we start the show with part three of our special report on North Carolina's changing criminal justice system. This week we've been examining some important changes to the state's new structured sentencing laws. Those changes which went into effect December 1st give tougher sentences to violent offenders. But one thing that won't change is the way the state deals with criminal drug abusers rather than being sent to prison and many will enter intensive probation programs designed to help them break their addiction. Kelly McCann Ray shows us one of those programs based in a residential home in Durham. This used residual options for substance abusers. There are new jail bars here no armed guards. Many of the people who live here would be in prison if they were to try.

They are all convicted criminals and all substance abusers. Last July Durham County donated this building to try an old abandoned school just north of downtown Durham. The program's executive director now likes to call it the School of Hard Knocks where long term substance abusers get an education in turning their lives around. Every time I lay down a few you it's good to get up and be busy today because I don't have to deal with anyone every afternoon if they're not working the 40 residents here are required to attend the seminar on this day. Each is given a word and asked what it means to him me. We know that. If this sounds more like the Oprah show than the state penitentiary you're right.

These inmates have already done hard time and it did nothing to break their habit of drugs and crime. So some were given a choice to either go back to prison or come to trial. 31 year old Louis love was facing a 20 year conviction for fraud and a future destroyed by drugs yet he once held a job at the White House as a driver for the Bush administration. Later his computer skills on him a job at IBM making $14 an hour. But he found something else in Washington. Cocaine is first conviction sent to jail for 10 months but did nothing to stop his drug use. What I learned in prison is it is easier in there to get drugs than it is that's way out on the street. After prison we went right back to his old habits and spent most of his time getting high. Tapping into his computer he would steal credit card numbers then wire himself money through Western Union. Soon all of his money went to buy drugs and he found himself living in a bed in hells is scavenging for food.

Looking at myself and I'm used to driving at the White House or working at IBM or something of that nature. And now here I am growing the food lion or Winn-Dixie or something like that when they close down to go to the garbage can to see what kind of foods they threw out so I could have something to eat for that night because of course the money that I had in my pocket I definitely couldn't use that to buy food because I needed that for my next hit. Yet even that didn't stop his lust for cocaine in self-destructive behavior. What finally made him snap was when he humiliated the one person he cared most about. His mother Carolyn. He asked her to sign for money. He was stealing from Western Union the next thing you know we were arrested and we both write him down in the back of a police car and seen she in handcuffs and going down the empty grate in her you know to hurt her real bad. When a judge offered him either prison he chose Strawson David over in charge of marketing How's it going. So did David Wilding after two decades of heroin abuse and multiple convictions for fraud and theft. This 38 year

old had had enough. Put a lot of people through a lot of pain. My ex-wife my shy and I you know I just totally destroyed turned whatever good was in my life and turned it around. So I'm trying to rebuild. So is using the sales skills that you want a six figure salary to market products sold by businesses. I give you the same price. Forty nine ninety on the triple tap. In fact that's a big part of what separates trucks from a standard drug treatment center. All the residents here are required to work operates Wilding's telemarketing operation along with several other businesses. Here Robert here is and potatoes to be sold to area restaurants. Residents also have assigned house chores like cooking and cleaning the mastermind behind all this is choices director Kevin MacDonald. He's an ex heroin addict himself who supported his

habit by robbing stores at gunpoint after a student prison. He ended up in San Francisco's de Lancey street drug rehab center and the experience transformed his life. It motivated him to start up similar programs in Greensboro and now here in Durham and his goal is to make like to lance the street totally self-supporting. We're not going to be like the welfare system or we're going to be on the dial for on and on and on. We just want to help we have to get started to set up business training schools to teach people you know how to work in various businesses and then for them feverishly run those businesses and then they graduate and get back to the community with some skills. Nothing to keep these people locked in is the neighborhood safe. MacDonald says he demands 24 hour a day accountability no one can live without signing out with a partner. And there are security guards and bed checks each night. MacDonald says he can't absolutely guarantee no one will get into trouble but says neither true nor de Lancey Street has had a single reported act of violence.

The key is that only people who want to be here who've decided they need to change are allowed into the program. Respect the respect we will my mom in the last hour that you know as a trip my work. O working on working on Tuesdays do you answer to rehabilitating hardened criminals. Only time and results can prove troops are right. But with drugs and alcohol at the heart of so many crimes in North Carolina State officials are willing to experiment since traditional punishment hasn't seemed to work with substance abusers. Far as I'm concerned this place America. North Carolina's Sentencing Commission chief believes our new system is working well overall. Executive Director Rob Lovett says because of structured sentencing there is now truth

in sentencing. Parole is abolished and a violent and repeat offenders are spending more time behind bars. Coming up John Mason's conversation with GOP gubernatorial candidate Robin Hayes. But right now Michel Louis is standing by at the North Carolina now news desk to fill us in on the day's news events. Good evening Mitch. Thanks Maria. Good evening everyone. About 90 soldiers from the 4th psychological operations group at Fort Bragg left today for Bosnia. They will join over 100 other Tarheel soldiers already headed for the Balkans. Meanwhile the Army has ordered members of Raleigh's 130 of military history detachment to prepare for duty as well as five other Fort Bragg units and an aero medical evacuation squadron from Pope Air Force Base. Just one day after Secretary of State Rufus Edmiston announced he won't run for the job again next year state Democrats are scrambling to find another candidate. According to many Democrats several women top the list of potential candidates include state revenue secretary Janice Faulkner state senator Beverly Perdue former Charlotte

city council member Cindy Patterson state administration Secretary Katy to her set Lydia Evans as well as former state Democratic chairman Lawrence Davis and State House member George brace. A congressional subcommittee met in the nation's capitol today to investigate whether legislation can keep poor pilots out of the cockpit. Today's action comes exactly one year after an American Eagle commuter plane crashed in Raleigh killing 15 people. According to an investigation pilot error caused that crash. State school superintendent Bob Etheridge says there are five goals he wants North Carolina schools to reach by the year 2000. Etheridge says he wants to give some control of the schools back to parents teachers and community leaders as well as a stablished safer schools. Other top goals include alternative schools for disruptive students rigorous new standards for student performance an emphasis on teaching fundamental values and statewide S.A.T. scores that match the national average. More lights and cameras will soon be moving to Brunswick County

niblick Productions has announced it plans to build a new state of the art movie studio near Leland the groundbreaking for the seven sound stages and three back lots is scheduled for March niblick productions president her head sort of says there's plenty of movie business to go around in the Tar Heel State. So far this year about 50 feature length and made for TV movies have been shot in the Wilmington area and now for a look at tomorrow's weather forecast. Temperatures are rising slowly but surely highs in the boon area will be in the upper 40s. Highs for the rest of the state will range from 53 degrees in the Triad to 60 along the coast partly to mostly cloudy skies are expected statewide in business news BellSouth has teamed up with three triangle universities to create a new online service called University for about $5 a month plus one cent per minute of connection time. You can now browse through databases and connect to the Internet through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill North Carolina State University or Duke University.

Bell South is providing the equipment for the service. At no charge to the school's German dishwasher maker Bosh Siemens has decided to build its first American plant a new burning construction on the thirty five million dollar facility is scheduled to begin in February. Company officials say the new plant will bring more than 200 new jobs to the area when it begins production in early 1997. On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed about 50 200 for the first time ever today. The blue chips gained more than forty one and a half points to end at 50 to sixteen point forty seven. Trading was heavy with four hundred fifteen million shares changing hands. The Standard Poor's 500 Index rose nearly three points while the Nasdaq composite index was up three and a half. And now for some stocks of North Carolina interest in. Tonight

we conclude our series of interviews with Republican gubernatorial hopefuls we've already heard from former Charlotte mayor Richard Vinroot and Guilford County Commissioner Steve Arnold. The third candidate seeking the GOP nomination is State Representative Robin Hayes. Here's USA TV's political correspondent John Mason and his interview with Mr. Haye's reps and Pace thank you very much for being here. Thank you John. Tell us why do you want to be governor. John in my short experience in the legislature I've found that individuals who want to make a difference and government can do so by becoming involved being prepared and having a way of articulating their position and I think this is the place that I really need to contribute to our

great state. Very good well let's talk about your potential opponent should you get past the primary. Polls show that Jim Hart is pretty popular has fairly high approval ratings as these things go. He's been elected statewide every time he's run with the exception of 1904 when he lost Senator Helms. Why do you think North Carolinians would want to replace him as governor. John I think career politicians in North Carolina and across the nation are something that people are tired of. One of the reasons that people are cynical about politicians is that politics seems to take the place of principle. You know I think when we present a different message in them an entirely different kind of candidate. I think people have a clear choice in based on our information and what I see as a legislator. I think that clear choice will lead them to make a decision and Robin Hayes need to be their governor. And you're in as you mentioned your second term in the House of Representatives a North Carolina house and you look through the bio and saw that you served as an alderman in Concord. Some people might wonder if you had enough experience to handle the job of governor what would you say to convince them. Well John

experience is important. The intensity of the experience I think is crucial. You know I've certainly had a lot of intensity when we were in the minority in my first term. We worked hard working with a team of people. We became the majority. As the Republicans took over the house. And I think that experience is very valuable. The experience I had in legislature translates into an ability to govern because as governor I work with the legislature who's passing the laws to make sure that we're doing the right things in downsizing government and treating people fairly and equitably across the state. You're one of three candidates in the Republican gubernatorial primary. None of you is known particularly well statewide so there's no front runner based on name recognition at this point. So you start with a level playing field and you get to define yourself over the next few months. One of the benefits and liabilities of having a clean slate with most of the potential voters. Well as you say John you have a chance to plead your case or to make your case. In my instance in a way that you would like to have the people know you and that is an advantage but my opponent one particularly has been out there an

awful long time so it's not really Leving level playing field but it's becoming that way in a hurry. You've shepherded some controversial legislation in the General Assembly including an abstinence education bill. Some saw your original bill as heavy handed in part because it placed restrictions on what local officials could do regarding sex education. There's a lot talk these days about returning control to the local level. Why didn't you favor letting locals have control over sex education curriculum. Well the people that say they don't have control are simply misinterpreting for their own purposes what the bill really does. Our first effort in that area was completely voluntary in the bill that we passed in this last session. Again says that the majority of Americans in North Carolinians think that our problems are problems of social and moral in nature and not just economic in they want us to present a platform and an agenda that will have traditional values at the heart of it which represents what the people are doing.

So in this case we simply said the standard is if you want to go the other way make sure that parents know what you're doing. Let them choose to go in another direction. So I think local control is enhanced not at all hindered in any way. And abortion is a divisive issue in America and it is part of the political landscape. If you were governor what changes would you push for North Carolina's laws regarding abortion. Well the changes that we made in legislature are very positive we have parental consent. We also have on the table not passed yet a woman's right to know. We did away essentially with the state taxpayer funded abortion fund that's something we should do in these directions we should continue. There's no question that unequivocally pro-life but at the same time I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this kind of issue at any length with whoever's interested doesn't need to be a divisive issue. It's only divisive when people want to make it. But again I'm clear in my beliefs. Oh man. OK. Your position on Smart Start governor Hunt's program for children seems to have changed over time or some people would

say initially you were an opponent. Later you seemed to favor it. Where do you stand on Smart Start. Smart Start when originally brought to the legislature was a program that appeared to me to be much more political than child oriented. I care very much about my own children the children of North Carolina as we work members of the minority and you know if you don't have the votes you can't completely dominate a situation. But we tried to craft that so that parents not the government were responsible for children. My thought is this is the direction we should be going. As governor I would not be pushing smart start as a political program but I would be doing things to change that process to make sure my restoration of the family they were truly protected children in truly gave them the chance for early late and future learning experiences that's where we need to do it not the program. Richard Nixon said Republicans should steer to the right during the primary and back to the center of the road for the general election are those still pretty good navigational instructions and do you plan to follow them.

Well I think that's an interesting political quote but I think when you have a candidate who is different from a politician and that's what I am you find that my course will be true regardless of campaign during service or after the fact. I want people to know who I am. Unfortunately when I get up in the morning and leave going wherever I don't have to change my direction because I'm the same person before during and after any type of political race. We've got less than a minute left but let me ask you this more voters are registering as an affiliated these days never before they don't identify themselves as Republicans or Democrats. How do you go about wooing those voters. Well you do the same thing consistently. Here I am. If you don't like me today you won't like me tomorrow this is where I stand and be able to defend your position. At the same time you encourage someone else to make you fully informed of why they feel like they do. You're a good listener. I'm on a North Carolina listening tour in you blend your ideas and theirs together looking not for a middle ground but for common ground so that you can build relationships make decisions

in the things that work for the people of all of North Carolina Robin Hayes Representative Robin Hayes thank you very much for your time today John. Thanks. Mashed potato is the traditional item found on your holiday menu. But Don our kids them that twist. I love mashed potatoes. Big time. How much should I use to love Mr. Tate as I used to make my mashed potatoes with whipping cream sour cream butter and egg yolks high fat mashed potatoes and I used to weigh 300 pounds then I lost more than 100

pounds more than five years ago and this is the way I make my mashed potatoes today and I call my decadent pant free mashed as I know you're going wait a second. Decadent fans can't be the same the same sentence. Well they can if you're making my mashed potatoes. Let me show you how I do I'm going to need two and a half pounds of potatoes. I've got those right here in this pan. Going to peel them cut them in the quarters you know boil them up you put you know covered with water about an inch above the above the top of the potatoes for 20 to 25 minutes to a nice and tender that's where these are. Drain the water off and put them in a mixing bowl now. You can make real smooth but you sound like a potato ricer. Or you can use like a full email and so on. But I like little little tiny piece of it makes the past is real if they're just little tiny pieces in there. So I've got my wire whisker wire whip on here. First thing I want to do is the lowest possible speed so it starts to break up the potatoes right now the ball. See those are starting to break up now. You can crank the speed up a little bit until it started to start to go good. Now while those you start to mash up and whip up in there I'm going to add around a quarter to a half a cup

of warm skim milk that's free milk. See how this is doing that's getting to me. Slow that down just a little bit. That's about a quarter cup. Those are getting nice and smooth and beautifully creamy already. The next thing you going to want to add is two tablespoons of nonfat sour cream and that's what I've got in here. Two tablespoons and I'm going to add the richness of sour cream. But none of the fast speed up here a little bit more pointed in the next thing I'm going to add is water bug. We talked about this before when I've been on here this is no fan but it is a liquid butter buds are going to add two tablespoons of that in here. You see how beautifully smooth and creamy these again these are gorgeous. Now you're going to add a half a teaspoon of salt. In a quarter teaspoon of fresh ground white pepper White never got a really nice

flavor to it you want your little black specks in. OK and that is it. Let's take a look and see what we got here. Take a look at this. I think it's beautiful. Now I want to show you how to surf. These are absolutely fat free. There's no phantom whatsoever they've got a wonderful flavor going to put them into this bowl. But this will serve about six people easily depends on how hungry you are could serve for people if you're really hungry and I like to dress these up a little bit. I sleep like a little little little fresh paprika powder sprinkle a little bit of an on the top get a little bit of color. And this is a proud about a tablespoon of freshly minced parsley leaves and that look great once in a while I think a little bit more butter budds pour that over the top and just let that drizzle down the sides just like that. Now let's give this a taste. These are truly

decadent fancy mashed potatoes the only way these would be any better at all is they had gravy on them. The next time I come back to the kitchen I want to make some wonderful country creamy style gravy to go over mashed potatoes. If you want to copy this recipe all you have to do is send a self-addressed stamped envelope to recipes. North Carolina now P.O. Box 1 4 9 0 0 see 2 7 7 0 mine. Make sure you indicate on your correspondence which recipe you are interested in receiving will share with you the gravy recipe on Monday's program. Well now that we've finished our show you can head outside tonight to see if you can catch a glimpse of the Gemini meteor shower. The optimal viewing times are from now until 11:30 tonight and 7:00 p.m. to midnight tomorrow night for the best view of the shower Heres some tips from the experts at the Morehead Planetarium. Find a dark sky area with a wide horizon allow your eyes to sweep the sky. The meteors will appear as

star sized points of light racing across the sky. Most meteor showers are associated with comets However the Geminid shower is associated with an asteroid which tends to produce more variety of color than most major showers tomorrow night on North Carolina now we'll talk about the dangers of radon. We'll see you then. Have a great evening. Good night. The thug good.