North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 08/03/1995

It's Thursday August 3rd. Tonight lawmakers are boxing on the road in North Carolina. Good evening everyone I'm Maria Lundberg glad you could join us tonight. We have a really great show for you. We'll look at what the state legislature has been doing to try to regulate the boxing industry in North Carolina the outer edges of Hurricane Erin have been lapping at some of the state's southern

beaches. And we'll be talking with a man who has written a book about the history of hurricanes in North Carolina. And we'll also take a tour of historic Fort Macon and tempt you with a great dessert recipe from the now kitchen. So let's get started. For years North Carolina has been one of only four states in the country that did not regulate boxing. But that changed this legislative session. Marc Klaas has our report. In an almost unanimous decision the North Carolina General Assembly has. Voted to establish a boxing commission. The commission will come under the Department of secretary of state. It's been the jungle. You come in your box and there's no regulation by anybody anywhere as long as somebody can be dragged in the ring and dragged off the ring. Then they've had a boxing match. Anything went. Anything still goes now later. But not everyone agrees with the majority in the general assembly. Senator Hugh Webster was one of the dissenters and I believe

that a person suffer those less serious damage in a benefice fight than he doesn't have a glove fight. Man fisted fighting catch people up that makes it look bad it draws blood it cuts on people's lives and but it probably is not as serious and damaging to his brain as having love fighting. James Bone Crusher Smith is a North Carolina boxer who became heavyweight champion of the world in 1986 only to lose that title to Mike Tyson in 1987 after 53 fights. The 42 year old athlete says the primary reason to regulate boxing is to protect the boxer. Well usually when to fight is a properly trained and properly master. You don't really have a serious injury when you have a serious injury and death occurs when you have a mismatch. And one guy might be a little better than

amateur fight a fight a top 10 champion. You know that's when you you have a dominant situation and the guy that's the weaker guy is going to get hurt. When Boxing Commission regulations take effect January 1st of the New Year ultimate warrior type matches like the event Charlotte hosted last April will be banned. Well nothing much happened this last time but they've had some horror stories. Broken bones concussions deaths all of the country. We're going to have that in keeping with the theme of this legislative session there won't be much money to be spent to fund this boxing commission. Officials say it'll mainly have to be a self-sustaining organization but it's hoped that this boxing commission will serve as a promotional tool to help boost North Carolina's economic development. And it's a great economic development too. You're doing things one last Ultimate Warrior event scheduled this December in

Winston-Salem. We'll be allowed to take place as planned. Meanwhile North Carolina's most famous boxing champion James Bonecrusher Smith will say farewell to his fans in his final flight this August in Raleigh. I felt like it was necessary for me to come to back to North Carolina and let the people here you know see me for my last fight. I represented nor can I as a fighter for the last 12 or 13 years and a lot of fun and a lot of fans out there and we just want to make sure that they have a chance to see the last fight and I'm sure it's going to be a great situation and event. Seven members will be appointed to the commission. Five will be full voting members two will be non-voting medical advisers. The points will be made by the governor the General Assembly and the secretary of state. In a few minutes we'll look at how hurricanes have affected North Carolina. But right now let's check in with Michel Louis at the news desk. Hi met.

Hello Maria. Good evening everyone. Secretary of State Rufus Edmonstone has a fight of another sort on his hands. State Republican leaders are calling for his resignation after a televised report suggesting he misused state funds. WRAL TV reported Edmonstone made dozens of calls to a female employee on his state owned cellular phone that she was one of several employees that Ed Winston took with him on a business trip to Montana at state expense and that he tried to create a full time job for her. Edmonson has said that all of that is true but that the woman is the daughter of a friend and he did nothing wrong. The woman resigned her position yesterday. A Gaston County senator wants the State Highway Patrol's commander to voluntarily step down. Sen. David Hoyle says it looks bad that the FBI is investigating the commander and at least 13 other state troopers and connection with an alleged fencing operation. Colonel Robert barefoot was a friend of Donald Thomas a key suspect in the case. A number of troopers moonlighted for Thomas unloading trucks believed to be carrying stolen property

Barefoot says he has severed all ties to Thomas. It's unlikely the state will take any action against barefoot until the investigation is complete. House Speaker Harold Breaux Baker is trying to block tomorrow's swearing in of a new member of the State Board of Education. And a letter to the board's chairman today Bruce Baker says he stands by his position that the House rejected Kathy tap's appointment in a July vote. Attorney General Mike Easley released an opinion Tuesday saying Taft had been confirmed because the House and Senate votes must be added together. The Senate confirms a Taft by a wide margin. BREAUX Baker says he wants the swearing in delayed until the state Supreme Court can be asked to rule on the issue. The new Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is reorganizing his administration. Michael Hooker has eliminated the position of vice chancellor for development and university relations so that he can be more involved in the fund raising and communications arch Allen who held the position will be on special assignment to Chancellor hooker.

Government inspections conducted as a result of hog waste problems in eastern North Carolina have revealed problems in the West as well of one hundred twenty four waste lagoons that were found to be full or overflowing. Twenty nine are in the western third of the state. Rowan and Davidson counties each have four lagoons in jeopardy. Three others are in Cleveland County Alexander County has two. The inspections were ordered by Governor Hunt after spills in late June and early July dumped more than 22 million gallons gallons of animal waste into eastern streams and rivers. While hurricane Aaron ripped through south Florida she also made her presence known here in North Carolina. Lifeguards on some southerly beaches posted red danger flags because of high winds and rough surf. Several swimmers had been had to be pulled to safety. Taking a look at tomorrow's weather the forecast calls for highs in the Piedmont and coastal areas to range in the upper 80s and lower 90s in the mountains temperatures will be similar to today's with highs of 78 in Boone and

83 in Nashville. Partly cloudy skies will continue tomorrow with variable chances of thunderstorms across the state. And business news transportation accidents and workplace assaults were the two leading causes of deaths on the job in North Carolina last year. The state labor department says two hundred twenty six people died as a result of workplace injuries in 1994 12 more than the year before. Forty two people were murdered on the job 31 of them from gunshot wounds. That figure is down from 54 murders the year before. NBC will soon have an owned and operated television station in the Raleigh Durham area. The network has signed a definitive agreement to buy outlook communications for forty two dollars 25 cents a share. Outlet owns w NC n and Raleigh. NBC beat out a competing offer for the company from Renaissance communications. The Dow industrials came back from a 40 point deficit on Wall Street today to close with a better than 11 point gain at the end x ended the day at forty seven a one

point forty two three hundred fifty three million shares change hands on the big board. The Standard Poor's 500 index ended the day slightly lower while the Nasdaq composite index was down a point. And now for some stocks of North Carolina interest. Mid morning hurricane Aaron made landfall near Fort Walton Beach on Florida's

panhandle. This was Aaron's second brush with Florida after having first hit land in central Florida on Wednesday. Erin is only a Category 1 hurricane and did not pack as strong a punch as some hurricanes can the devastating nature of hurricanes is all too familiar to the people who live in coastal communities particularly here in North Carolina. Our state has a long history of being badgered by hurricanes. And our guest tonight has chronicled the history of hurricanes in North Carolina. He is Jay Barnes the director of the North Carolina Aquarium at Pinal shores and his new book is called North Carolina's hurricane history. Jay It's a pleasure to have you with us tonight. Glad to be here. What made you decide to take on the project of writing a book about history of hurricanes. Well Mariel had a long interest. I grew up in Brunswick County. I grew up hearing a lot of the stories of Hazel and some of the other storms that affected that region and then eventually went to work for the North Carolina Aquarium. We put on a Hurricane Awareness program every season and just developed a strong interest started doing a little research.

And then one day decide it would make a great project so we could develop a little better sense of what to expect in the future from hurricanes in our state. Well the book is amazing to look at the photographs alone are just incredible. You cover more than 50 hurricanes and spanned many many years in North Carolina. How did you go about doing your research and getting those incredible photographs. Well the research was much of it was done for me frankly the National Weather Service has done an excellent job through the years of compiling the wind speeds and the storm surge and other kinds of media logical data. A lot of the newspapers of the state were helpful in providing the anecdotal stories and other interesting bits of information in documenting the storms and finding the photographs really was the hard part especially the older storms prior to the 1940s and 1950s that really are not very many pictures that tell the story of what kind of storms we've had. If you go back into the last century storms like the 1899 hurricane for example and others. The only information we have about them tends to be regarding the ship wrecks the ships that have gone

down David Styx book on ship wrecks. It was a great source of information. So there are a lot of a lot of recent photographs available but the older ones were much harder to find. Which photo are we seeing now. Well in 1013 for example Newbern was flooded much of Newbern was flooded by a severe hurricane that came ashore washed through Pamlico Sound and pushed a surge of water up the Neuse River in this just one of many hurricanes that has affected Newbern through the years. I know that in addition to the research that you've done you've been able to talk to a lot of people who either saw some of these hurricanes are had or were descendants of people who saw them for example look at this photograph and tell us what we're seeing here I understand this one is quite unique. Well Hurricane Hazel still stands probably as the benchmark for hurricanes along the North Carolina coast at least in this century. And this is a photo taken by Hugh Morton down at Carolina beach during the peak of the storm. Hazel was the. Again a Category 4 hurricane. A 17 foot storm surge washed over Long Beach. Tremendous

destruction in that area. One hundred fifty mile per hour winds Wrightsville Beach in Carolina Beach also hit very hard by Hurricane Hazel even on the outer edges of Hazel up in Carteret County as you see here. Front Street in downtown Beaufort was flooded by several feet of water. So Hazel was one of those storms that as it moved inland caused tremendous destruction in Raleigh and Rocky Mount in other areas as well. Looking at those photos it really gives you a renewed respect for what nature can do. I understand that you even documented a hurricane that went back as early as the fifteen hundred Now how did you find out about that one. Well in the book there are actually are very few accounts of the storms of the 16th or 17th or 18th century the just aren't very many reports or accurate information available on those. But I did uncover a few mostly from libraries and journals and letters that I was able to find. The more recent period of time the last century in the 20th century the information is much more complete. Well you mentioned Hurricane Hazel a lot of people who live along the coast still remember that one. And there was an

awful lot of destruction that came. Do you think that was propped perhaps one of the worst ones that has hit North Carolina. Well certainly the most severe to strike the North Carolina coast in this century. Category 4 as I said the Hurricane Hugo in 1909 made landfall in South Carolina did a tremendous amount of destruction. Throughout western North Carolina particularly Charlotte but there have been many other storms through the years that have perhaps been at least as powerful if not more powerful than Hazel. We just don't have good information on how powerful they were what the wind speeds were and so forth. There was a period of time in the 50s when we seemed to get an awful lot of hurricanes hitting the North Carolina coast. Was there something about that time period that seemed to make us more vulnerable or is there something about the North Carolina coast that makes it fall interval to hurricanes. Well we did earn the reputation as Hurricane Alley back in the 50s because we had several storms striking such a short period of time. For example after Hazel in 54 we had three hurricanes make landfall within six weeks in the 955

season hurricanes Conny Diane and I as you see here some flooding in in downtown Little Washington. So that was a very active period of time. There really is no way to make any prediction or judgment about why we had so many during that time and why we would go for 20 or 30 years without a severe storm. There's a real randomness to the. To the effects of the storms through the years. Well I would think that people reading your book can learn a lot about the history and hopefully learn something that will help them to be better prepared for hurricanes that may hit coming up in the future is that part of your your goal in putting this book out. I hope so I hope that it will be educational. I think by looking back at the results of storms through the years we have a little bit better understanding of what to expect with the next severe hurricane makes landfall here and I guess also one of the things that people can learn from from reading this is just the respect for what nature can do and how important it is to be able to be prepared and also to be prepared to leave when it's necessary I know that's a problem sometimes

along the coast. It is evacuation of our barrier beaches particularly is critical during severe storms. It's my belief that every family and every business in eastern North Carolina needs to have a hurricane plan and to know something about the elevation of your home and your property to know where you're going to go and what you're going to take with you. And just generally be prepared watching the news and watching the tropics helps also. Well Jay the book is fascinating you've got some wonderful photographs some interesting information that I'm sure our viewers will find very helpful and informative and we're really pleased that you could be here to share it with us tonight. Thanks so much pleasure. Yeah. Looking for a new dessert recipe. Well Gretchen lying in the now kitchen is cooked.

Cooking up a tasty treat that should have put a smile on everyone's face when I was growing up my mom and my aunts used to tell me stories of their childhood in the southern mountains and how before every holiday all the ladies of the area would make incredible arrays of cakes and pies in preparation for the holidays and there would always be at Thanksgiving and Christmas and any celebration many different kinds of cake. And many of these ladies were very proud of their boiled frostings now boil frosting is something I had never tried to make myself it sounds a little intimidating but I discovered that it is a merengue frosting and so for those of us who are trying to lower our overall fat intake but like a lot of frosting on our cake it's wonderful because it's fat free. So I decided to try a boiled frosting and I discovered that it's really very easy to do. And today I'm going to show you how to make a simple maple boiled frosting. Now since this isn't the way you're going to start with egg whites and I fuse the whites of four eggs to make this

batch of frosting today and you want to separate those whites being very very careful to keep all traces of yolk out of there because otherwise your Moran won't rise up nicely if you get any yolk in there at all. And you want to put those egg whites into a large bowl and you can see that when I use this bowl for my four egg white batch of frosting I really filled it right up you can see the mark there where it came right up to the top. It's going to greatly increase in volume. So you want to separate out those egg whites and start bringing them to room temperature. Now in the mean time over here I have a cup of maple syrup one cup for four egg whites and I put this maple syrup into a heavy bottom pan I use the small copper pan but any good heavy pan with deep sides will do just fine. You want to put that syrup in there and bring it to a boil. Now the syrup is going to start to foam up and you want to control the heat carefully lower it down as soon as the syrup reaches a boil I use three on a scale of 1 to 10

to cook the syrup. And you want to just continue cooking that syrup you may have to stir it occasionally to bring the foam down so it doesn't boil over. But you want to continue cooking it until it reaches the softball stage. Now what that means is you have a glass of water here like this next to the stove. You want to periodic we dip a fork in there and get just a drop of your maple syrup and drop it into this glass. And at first you'll see that the syrup will disperse in the water and kind of disappear and as it cooks a little farther when you drop one drop in there it's going to form a soft little ball and fall to the bottom of the cup keeping it sort of ball like shape. And that's exactly the right stage for those of you who use a candy thermometer that's very easy. But for the rest of us just dripping a little bit in that glass of water will tell you and at that point you want to remove that pan from the heat and just set it aside. Then you want to go back to your bowl with the egg whites and you want to beat those whites to stiff peaks just as though you were making any other kind of a merengue. And then you want to

add the syrup while beating in a thin stream and just keep beating that until after the syrup is all added You'll be out for about probably four or five minutes more with your electric beater until you get this wonderful almost whipped cream like consistency that you can see here the icing will hold beautiful peaks as it's doing now when I lift it up with the knife and the wonderful thing about this frosting is that you can really achieve wonderful height on the cake like this. And I've cut a piece out of here so that you can see how pretty the frosting looks now. If you have a little leftover frosting you can make more rags by simply dropping spoons full of this frosting onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet and baking them in a very slow of in about 200 degrees until they're completely crisp and dry. And that's a wonderful fat free treat also. So enjoy your maple boil frosting and if you'd like a copy of this recipe send a self-addressed stamped envelope to recipes and see now P.O. Box 1

4 9 0 0 RTP NC 2 7 7 0 9. There are lots of historic sites to see in North Carolina and some of them are free. Tonight producer on about a ninth and reporter Michel Louis take us to the coast for a special trip back into the states past here on the northern tip of the Emerald Isle Fort Macon guards Beaufort and lived like an old soldier refusing to pause from his vigil. Only one battle took place here but it was damaging enough to shut down the fort for ever. In the spring of 1862 Union troops cracked open these red brick walls by using bullet huge cannon balls known as Waikoloa artillery. Within the day Fort Macon surrendered Randy Newman is a ranger here. He explains why the Fords 15 million bricks couldn't keep the enemy out or make it was made by someone smooth bore weapons that basically means a smooth barrel with a round in a ball and what that would do a cannon ball would come in hitting a brick fort and bounce song. During the

Civil War right forte was invented that means there's grooves in the barrel which makes the cannon ball spin is no longer round shaped like a boy. Basically rifle artillery penetrates brake This is the second time in history here for making that ride particularly if you can see Borton in within 11 hours. Had to surrender because it was cracking open the force was used as a federal prison for a decade after the Civil War and then for a short time during World War Two soldiers occupied board maken to defend the coast against German U-boat. Today you can see the scars from Fort Macon's only battle a cannon ball once rolled down the steps and left its impression on the stone. The fort itself is hidden from the surrounding grove and only when you make a steep climb to the top of the gun in boys minds. Can you see the ocean from the sun beating down on the parade grounds through the cave like room the board shows you how soldiers lived a century ago.

The fort is open year round and if you'd like more information about visiting Fort Macon you can call this number on your screen. It's 9 1 9 7 2 6 3 7 7 5. Ever think of hiking the Appalachian Trail or strolling around the North Carolina Zoo. Do you mind to visit places from the past or has the past ever haunted you from outdoor drama to women's health. North Carolina now has explored it all and we've compiled from sure to share our information with you. Send a self-addressed stamped envelope to North Carolina now he'll box 1 4 9 0 0 RTP NC to 7 7 0 9. Now was that great BBQ place. We hope you'll find time to join us again tomorrow night for another jam packed edition of North Carolina now. Tomorrow will be a very special day for those of us here at U.N.

CTV as we rededicate Channel 4 the flagship transmitter of the UN CTV system. We'll also talk with David Ruger of the Association of Americas public television stations about congressional funding for public broadcasting. And we'll have a report on a controversial issue that swept the state in recent weeks. Who should decide how long a woman and her baby need to stay in the hospital after childbirth. But before we go we've heard a lot about the growing number of cases of rabies in our state and across the country. This Saturday. Thirty five veterinary hospitals in Wake County will be holding rabies clinics. The clinics will be from 1:30 to 3:30. The cost for rabies vaccinations will be $5 for either dogs or cats. So if you love your pet please make sure they're vaccinated. And we hope to see you right here again tomorrow night. Thanks so much for joining us. Goodnight everyone.