North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 08/18/1995

It's Friday August 18. Tonight riding the mini rails in North Carolina now. Good evening and welcome to this Friday edition of North Carolina now I'm Maria Lundberg. We have some great things for you on tonight show

a program to bring high tech science equipment into the state's Rural schools is making a big difference for students there. How safe is the air we breathe. Tonight's guest talks about the quality of our air in North Carolina and a little later in the show we'll take you for a ride on a very special railroad. But first we begin with education. Over the next few weeks students all over the state will begin a new school year for those in North Carolina's wealthier school districts computers will enable them to learn high tech skills. Unfortunately many less affluent counties can't afford to buy computers for their students. But an outreach program at North Carolina State University is trying to level the playing field. It's a typical day at St. Paul's high school in Robison County a rural area with a large population. Low tax base and a lot of poverty. It's not where you'd expect to see the latest in high tech equipment but a visit to Pam Pittman science class finds just that. Computers are interfaced with probes

for lab experiments which record data like heart rate temperature and motion detection another system allows students to put a slide under a microscope and see the organisms on a video monitor. They can even capture the image on a computer and print it out. All of this is possible thanks to NC State's pre-college science outreach program. We've got about $60000 worth of equipment and we work with biology chemistry physics and physical science teachers. We have a variety of different types of equipment. We provide the training for the teachers we provide the equipment for them to Hughes and we're providing our personnel. But they need to be able to keep everything going for each of the past two summers. Fourteen high school science teachers from seven counties attended workshops at N.C. State to learn about these technologies. They looked at new ways to teach science and create experiments to be done with this equipment throughout the year. Each school has the use of the equipment for four weeks. The program is specifically designed to

help rural counties in the southeastern part of the state. There's are a great. Difference in the availability of equipment in the rural schools. We have some schools that are fairly well equipped and we have all those that have practically nothing and so we had to go on the basis of will provide everything for you. We try to encourage hands on learning activities because learning is is much greater when it is actively involved in the process. In her role as coordinator Judy Powell delivers the equipment and sets it up at each school. She also helps teachers plan laboratory experiments and serves as a resource if they need additional help. I want you to do an experiment where you're going to see on this particular day in Pam Pitman's environmental science class students are performing a lab experiment to see how the body uses energy when it's at rest and during exercise. Using the computer and probes they can graph the results immediately on the monitor and

record them to be printed. It's a unique learning experience that often isn't available to students in rural communities. A lot of these kids are going to go out and get jobs where they have to use technological equipment. And if they're not from where you were that from being in the classroom than when they behind especially when they're competing when kids from other countries who have had a say so this equipment forward by using this equipment in here at least they will get some exposure to what it is and how it works. Teachers aren't the only ones who rave about this program. Students give it high marks to computer people who don't have a chance to work on computers. So you know whatever they're going to change your class

because they have a lot of that sense of fun and excitement about learning science is what this program strives for particularly in hopes of encouraging women and minorities to think about a science career. Pam Pittman also sees other benefits for her students. A lot of them don't know anything. A lot of I have never been. And so I don't know I was out there and maybe this can extend their possibilities and I can see that they're somewhere out there there's other things. State Senator Leslie winter sees the benefit for all students or students just need to have computer skills if they're going to go out into the world I need to be able to use word processors and all these things that are out there. But the really the most exciting things is that the computers and other technology are wonderful and independent

and learn how to present and communicate information and it really can turn them into the kind of independent problem solvers that we're trying to create in our school systems. That goal is just what the NC State outreach program hopes to achieve not only to teach science better but to prepare students for a more productive and successful future. What we're hoping for that by using this equipment then instead of there spending all of their time and during the busy work that they're spending their time during the analysis and the thinking process which is what it's all about if we can teach them how to think then we can put them in just about any situation and we'll be successful. It's the state's science outreach program is funded by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the university. It's a cooperative venture by the College of Agricultural and life science and the college of physical and mathematical sciences. If you'd like more information about the program contact Judy Powell at 9 1

9 5 1 5 3 3 4 1. Well computer technology can be a weighty thing for students to think about. But there is also a lighter side to going back to school. Raleigh's news an observer asked a group of fifth graders to give some school survival tips to the new kindergarten class. And we wanted to share some with you. For instance you shouldn't put rocks up your nose at recess. They're just too hard to get out. Try to make friends with the biggest kid in class. If someone's trying to pick on you you'll have protection. And don't shove the boy going too slow in front of you in line. Ever heard of the domino effect. Well I think there's a few lessons in there for all of us in a few minutes we'll talk about the growing smog problem in the southeast. First let's check in with Michel Louis at the national debt crime Michel. Hello Maria. Good evening everyone. Forecasters are still keeping an eye on Hurricane Felix but they say it's unlikely to return to threaten the North Carolina coast at 5:00 p.m. The storm is located at 400 miles east northeast of Cape Hatteras.

It continues to move to the east at a very slow pace. Meanwhile the Army Corps of Engineers says there was less damage than I anticipated from Felix a swipe at the north at North Carolina beaches. Seven North Carolina nursing homes were issued fines this week for health care violations. East Carolina Karen Greenville was charged $1000 after an elderly all Simers patient wandered away last winter. The woman was wearing only a diaper and shirt and was almost hit by a car. Emerald healthcare in Alexander County was fined $7000 for failure to care for patients with pressure sores and other violations. Other nursing homes fined include wrecks convalescent care center Forest Glen health care center and Wellington community nursing center and Wake County Vontae at Charlotte and Mecklenburg County and Hill Haven skilled nursing home and rest home and I regaled County. Welfare reform programs like Governor Hunt's work first plan could receive federal approval faster than expected. The Federal Department of Health and Human Services says it's creating a new

process to handle such requests and as little as 30 days. The agency says quick decisions will be made on certain programs such as ones that require teenage mothers to live at home and attend school and on programs that use welfare and food stamp benefits to subsidize private jobs. The speaker of the North Carolina State House is trying to set a date and September for an ethics committee meeting on allegations surrounding representative Ken Miller the aliments County Republican has been accused of making advances to a 16 year old house page. Miller has denied the allegations and says he feels betrayed by the Republican Party leadership. A date for the hearing won't be set until at least next week when the committee chairwoman returns from a conference. Smokers in their 30s and 40s are five times more likely to have a heart attack than their nonsmoking counterparts. That's the conclusion of a study published this week in the British Medical Journal Oxford University researcher Richard Peto conducted the study with 14000 heart attack victims and 32000 of their relatives

Pito census results reinforces the link of smoking to heart attacks. But a smokers rights group in Britain dismisses the study as verbal terrorism. Another Olympic team will be doing its training in the Tar Heel State. The State Commerce Department says the Australian track team will use facilities in the triangle to prepare for the 96 games in Atlanta. Five other countries have also selected training sites in our state and including the New Zealand swim team. They have picked Hendersonville as their training site. I'll have a report next Tuesday on a special trip they recently made to the town. Taking a look at tomorrow's weather high temperatures across the state will range from 85 in Boone to 92 in Greenville in Charlotte. Expect a bright sunshine in the Triad and triangle. It will remain partly cloudy in Elizabeth City. It will also be partly cloudy in the mountains and the Charlotte areas with a slight chance of thunderstorms there. In business news though Felix didn't cause the physical damage that some feared. The economic damage is undeniable. The hurricane arrived during the peak week of what had been a

record breaking tourist season. Officials at the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce claim lost tourist revenues of more than four million dollars a day. Even areas that weren't threatened by Felix pay the economic price. According to a representative from Wilmington's tourist bureau southern coastal revenues dropped nearly one million dollars a day. Business owners hope that since Felix has probably moved on they can recoup some of their losses before Labor Day. Nation's Bank first union and walk Obeah have joined 11 other financial institutions to develop high tech cards that will be as good as cash. The so-called smart cards will have a computer chip that stores cash balances bank customers could transfer funds from bank accounts or credit cards to the smart cards through automated teller machines purchases would be deducted from the card. The participating banks plan to experiment with smart cards next year. Wall Street ended the week on a mixed note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 13 points at forty six seventeen point sixty eight. However gainers lead decliners by

six to five. Three hundred and twelve million shares traded hands the Standard Poor's 500 Index also closed up slightly while the Nasdaq composite index gained two and a half points for another record close. And now for some stocks of North Carolina interest there. This has been an especially bad summer for smog here in the south and the problem is not getting any

better. Robin Miniato spoke with a nationally respected expert who has some real concerns about the quality of our air. We call it smog that grimy yellow brown haze that colors the air and makes it difficult and sometimes dangerous to breathe. Scientists call it ozone pollution and warn that our efforts to improve the quality of our air here in the southeast have not been very effective. The Southern oxidants study is a partnership with scientists from 21 universities and 35 industries or public interest groups. And our guest tonight is Dr. Ellis cowling the director of what's known as S.O.S. Dr. Callan thank you. How bad is the smog in our area. Not as bad as it is in lots of other places. California they have much more serious than pollution. In the northeast they have higher peak higher concentrations of ozone but here in the south we have more steady concentrations of ozone so the higher average occurs in our part country

whereas the higher peaks are in California and in the New England area and is it high enough here to concern people. Yes. If you have more than 70 parts per billion in the atmosphere photosynthesis is inhibited in the sense that all the plants that we know. And human health is affected to 80 or more parts per billion. So we sometimes have 100 or 20 that the standard is one hundred twenty parts per billion for just one hour. So it exceeds that by a couple of hours then we haven't exceed the ozone standard. You know a five year study just released by ISIS found what I think are astonishing results and that is despite these last two decades of intensive efforts to clean our air we really haven't made any progress. What's happened. The South Shall Rise Again. Everybody's doing stuff and and some of the New Englanders that are losing their businesses are finding those businesses or

related ones developing in our region. So the South was industrialising people are coming here they're driving more and all of the cars are getting cleaner because they're driving more and there are more people here and the cars in some cases are getting older and we aren't always careful about maintaining them well. That's a very important thing. If people would maintain their vehicles we can decrease the amounts of emissions. So our efforts to decrease emissions are being offset by population growth and continuing industrialization. What about sources pollutants other than industrial pollutants in cars other than manmade pollutants. Well the natural substances emitted by trees are contributing to the volatile carbon compounds. But we have so much excess nitrogen oxides that when nitrogen oxides from human sources and and we'll see these as we call them volatile organic carbon compounds from natural sources and from human sources combined in the atmosphere. Then ozone which is not

emitted by any pollution source accumulates in the atmosphere. Knows and we know at a very high atmospheric level is good for us it protects us from ultraviolet rays. What is known at the lower atmospheric levels do. It's toxic to people toxic to plants toxic to microorganisms and it inhibits the activities of people breathing in the plants carrying on photosynthesis and growing to produce our food. One of the things that you talked about in your book is that the excuse me in your study is that the local approach to air pollution control isn't necessarily the best approach how would you go about that. We have found that our system of approaching how to minimize pollution in the cities has to do with the and with certain counties are designated as non attainment counties. But if you have say 80 parts per billion coming in from the surrounding regional area and the standards one hundred twenty The city can't possibly decrease its emissions

alone if so much of the emissions of pollutants substances are coming into the area. So we think a much larger region must be approached and EPA has acknowledged this and so they're asking us and other programs around the country to examine the regionality of the ozone problem. What about the efforts of agencies like the EPA in the efficacy of the clean air after about 20 years into that now are they working. You know it would be a lot worse if we weren't making all the things that the Clean Air Act requires of us. But it appears that we haven't understood the science well enough to know what is really most effective. For example we have these video sees the volatile organic carbon compounds in the nitrogen oxides and most of our policies have been focused on the human released the you'll see us from our cars in our industries. That's right. And what we're finding is the South is more limited by the availability of nitrogen oxides so that if we have to spend some money to decrease emissions we ought to be decreasing

intellects rather than We'll see. And how do we do that. Well power plants are one source of NOx soil micro-organisms So farmers over federalizing or even city dwellers who put put too much fertilizer on their urban lawns are among the sources that would lead to NOx. But it's largely combustion of fossil fuels where NOx is released and that goes on in automobiles and in power plants and in domestic boilers. So it's nice to have a warm shower in the wintertime but it takes energy to burn to warm the water. Dr. Golland thank you very much for being with us. Thank you. The Lore of the railroad is part of the American experience. Generations have grown up

listening to the mournful wail of a passing train in North Carolina. A group is devoted to preserving the sights and sounds and fun of railroading. On a scale it fits right in their own backyard. Reporter Andy Parker takes us to a meeting in Durham of the North Carolina garden Railway Association. Most of us played with toy trains at one time or another usually when we were kids and some of us have even followed the hobby into adulthood. There's a group of North Carolinians who have taken a lot of model trains to a new height about 8 inches as a matter of fact. There's not a lot of places left in this country where there's enough room to try and rebuild the past. Course it helps if you can cut things down to size. Recently in Durham a group called the North Carolina garden railway society met in the backyard of an industrialist. They came from the mountain the

oceanside from Charlotte from the countryside of Rougemont and the kind of trains they're involved with make up one of the fastest growing hobbies in the nation. This is the size I remember under the Christmas tree the lion Eller the American Flyer This is called the gauge. And then there's the gauge that became very very popular. And look at this little guy. This was the in scale people love that. And even a tinier one. The Z gauge it's a real electric railroad. But the one being celebrated today is the big one by garden railway. The G game. Garden railroading grew out of a longing for the past combined with a love of the great outdoors. Bill Bates of Rougemont wasn't even born when American railroading was at its peak but he and his wife were like reincarnated beams with a past life. My dad started me as a kid and start out with a little engage layout and then when I got to college I started getting back into picking up a hobby

again. And then after graduating from college I found that you know Valley Club and join then I guess I've been about five years ago when i forgive me only an old man could get away with asking but in what year were you born. Sixty five in one thousand sixty five. America's friends were gone and they were gone. They're just different. The difference in what you look at I prefer the steam is right back in 30s and the 20s when you get the big stain. Some people prefer modern trains where you've got your diesels and all the freight. James McGill is into what they call cyber space at Duke University he's a computer guru. In the garden he just is dedicated with his trains. Oh very much so. It's a really nice release it's fun. What I like about it is it is very relaxing and. To watch little kids come around I just wonder at the trains that is. That's probably some of the most satisfying things you put shows on which is just just the large scale

trains up and I just love love the animation. Jim Donnelly is the CEO of a multinational company doing business all over the world. But he relaxes right in his own backyard. I've been involved in railroading in the hobby and the hobby of collecting trains building trains playing with Ricky and I just having a lot of fun and this is kind of be the ultimate involvement of it and you know that's the operative word there so many people when they talk about hobbies they turn into a profession and they get deadly serious about it I know you people of the SEC. Doubt you're happy but you are really and truly having fun are a tremendous amount and and this is not an all pervasive hobby for me as well. The trains can run in almost any weather and they're especially adaptable to landscaping. They can turn an ordinary exact yard into a magic

horse we chauvinists have been saying for years the difference between men and boys is just the price of their toys. Course nowadays funding gets more difficult all the time. By the way Kevin Wolfe of Wu NC radio in Chapel Hill provided the music for this story. Kevin used to play with trains too. Now if you'd like to contact the North Carolina garden Railway Association just write to them at P.O. Box 5 2 1 0 4 Durham North Carolina 2 7 7 0 0 7. Or call them at 9 1 9 4 8 9 5 0 1 4. Well that's our show for tonight but we have another great one planned for Monday. We'll begin a special series commemorating the seventy fifth anniversary of women's suffrage. Christina Copeland will tell us about the role in North Carolina as women played in that movement. We'll also begin a series of interviews with members of North Carolina's congressional delegation and our guest on

Monday will be representative Eva Clayton. Now if you're looking for something cool to beat the heat this weekend you might like to take in an exhibition of artwork by Andy Warhol at North Hills Mall in Raleigh. The exhibit features 32 works by the artist including pictures of celebrities Judy Garland and James Dean. The display runs through Aug. 27 and is free however voluntary donations will be collected to benefit the AIDS service agency of Wake County. We hope you have a great weekend that will see you back here on Monday. Good night everyone.