North Carolina Now; Episode from 1999-04-15

It's Thursday, April 15th, tonight 40 years of leading the way in education, research and technology in North Carolina now. Good evening everyone, I'm Marita Matre, I trust your taxes are in the mail so you can sit back and relax and enjoy tonight's edition of North Carolina now. The U.S. Attorney from the Middle District of North Carolina will be our guest this evening to talk about a juvenile crime intervention program that's receiving national praise and funding. And we'll mark the 40th anniversary of a world leader in research and technology. But as all this technological advancement and economic development is underway, we look at efforts tonight designed to ensure that certain parts of our state remain free from too much hustle and bustle. The State House has approved a bill that would restrict casino boats from operating in North Carolina.

Producer Clay Johnson takes a subordinate to a casino boat that is operating very near our coast, which has opened the eyes of at least one state lawmaker. Whether you view them as tourist attractions or immoral distractions, the operators of casino boats appear to be hitting the jackpot at Little River in let South Carolina. Toys today, the victory casino welcomes passengers aboard for some Las Vegas style casino gambling. That's illegal in South Carolina, but in coastal waters, the long arm of the law is only three miles long. So before the games can begin, the victory casino winds its way down the inlet out into the Atlantic Ocean and travels just beyond an invisible line from state jurisdiction into international waters. I think it's kind of stupid. That's how Don Darcangelo feels about the two hour boat ride for three hours of gambling. His wife Nora lost her bet on her drama mean halfway out, but the two still had a good time. It's just another added attraction like another amusement park or just something else for people to do when they come on vacation.

The Darcangelo's are visiting from upstate New York. Their two $19 tickets and any money they lose to the victory casino is a drop in the bucket compared to the money they will spend elsewhere during their week long vacation on the grand strand. I would probably guess a couple thousand dollars. Money they will spend on a hotel, restaurants, concerts, the theater, putt putt golf and other attractions. And what about Friday? Joan Bartel's Amarillo runs a local hair salon and is president of the Little River Chamber of Commerce. She says the two casino boats now operating out of the inlet are good for business. All businesses from the Chinese restaurants to the hair salons, everybody's getting more business. She says the boats help keep business brisk in the winter when tourist traffic slows. You're going to give me economic development. Give me a different kind rather than that. North Carolina representative David Redwine lives just north of Little River. He says gambling boats would be a gamble for North Carolina.

It has the potential for changing the character of our coastal communities. Las Vegas style casino gambling I think is not what North Carolina wants to bill itself as a destination for. Redwine says North Carolina bills its beaches as quiet places for family vacations. He says it's that image that's kept the state's coastal tourism industry thriving. Most of my constituents at least would like to keep it that kind of atmosphere rather than the hustle and bustle of a mortal beach or a lantic city or Las Vegas. Redwine says casino boats would steer North Carolina's coastal areas in that direction. With no laws in place to stop them, he says it's just a matter of time before the boats cross the border into our state. So Redwine has sponsored a bill that would impose enough regulations and fees to keep casino boats from operating out of North Carolina ports of call. Some of Redwine's counterparts in the South Carolina General Assembly are also trying to sink the casino boat business.

After thousands of people from the mortal beach and Little River inlet areas signed a petition against casino boats, local legislators introduced a bill to try and ban them outright from South Carolina docs. Traffic is hard enough up through here anyway. Jim Rush, pastor of the Little River United Methodist Church, is one of the leaders of the anti-casino boat movement. It's not just a traffic that bothers him, it is also, of course, the gambling. He says casino boat proponents regularly remind him that it's a free country. But as I told the lady one day, he said, reminded me that it was a free country. And it was not my problem, I said, yes, but when you gamble and lose your money to the point that you lose your home and you don't camp by groceries and you go on welfare, then your problem becomes my responsibility. And I don't feel that it's mine to have. Reverend Rush led the fight against video game parlors in Little River,

but a South Carolina State Supreme Court ruling deemed the video machines as games of skill. There are now dozens of them in Little River and Rush says they feed off of people with gambling addictions. But the operators of the victory casino say their passengers aren't in the same boat with those gamblers. I think they're very pleasant people. I mean, they're out to enjoy themselves, and I think they enjoyed them too. Some people have a problem with gambling. Like with me, I never go to a gambling casino thinking I'm going to come out a millionaire. I always figure, you know, if I can lose a couple hundred dollars, that's what I take with me, a couple hundred dollars. If I win, I pick my money up and leave. Al and Gail McFadden came down from Wilmington. They see no problem with casino boats operating back home in their community. They say North Carolina is losing the money that they and other gamblers are spending here. People will spend their money having fun, and that's what the gambling boats are. It's just having fun. And if you lose, if you lose, it's like anything else. It's a cost.

But, you know, you control your limit. We start with so much. That's all we're going to lose, and then we just enjoy ourselves. Representative Redwine has no problem with gamblers, just the chains that gambling boats might bring to North Carolina. You know, let them, let them go to Las Vegas or Atlantic City or the Murdle Beach or Little Rivers, I don't know where the boats are located now and do that, but I just really keep our coastal communities pretty quiet. The Victor Casino and the Star Dancer Casino boat both operate out of the Little River inlet, because it's one of the few places along the Grand Strand with docks and waters deep enough to accommodate them. We'll still head on the program to look at how the triad is leading the way in efforts to curb juvenile crime. At first, here's Mitchel Lewis with the summary of today's statewide headlines. Good evening, Mitch. Thanks, Marita. Good evening, everyone. Around 2,200 camp legion Marines left today for a six-month deployment in the Mediterranean. Members of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit will be replacing the 24th MEU,

which was recently ordered to Macedonia to set up a refugee camp. Meanwhile, some 80-pop Air Force Base Airmen left yesterday to support NATO operations in Kosovo, and at Fort Bragg, about 700 paratroopers remain on standby, prepared to head to Albania to offer protection for helicopter air attacks. Governor Hunt has signed into law new protections for victims of domestic violence. Hunt says the Safe Families Act will hold abusers more accountable for their actions. Among other things, the new law empowers police to enforce protective orders issued in other states. The act also permits law enforcement officers to arrest suspects without warrants when officers believe the suspect has violated a protective order. The act also requires sheriffs to list protective orders on the FBI's crime registry. The Hunt administration appears interested in scrapping portions of a welfare-to-work plan pushed through the General Assembly by Republican lawmakers last session. One GOP legislator called the administration's efforts ludicrous. The Hunt administration wants to remove certain Republican limitations on spending welfare dollars, and instead replace them with a number of Democratic funding priorities. Hunt people also argue the Republican initiatives are similar to a new program operating under the State Commerce Department.

The Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations has agreed to release about $58 million for repair and renovation projects across the state. The funds had been approved last year, but were put on hold this year because of a shortfall in the upcoming budget. The projects include repairs to the battleship North Carolina and a replica of the ocean liner, the Queen Elizabeth II. A bipartisan group of state lawmakers have filed a package of bills in the General Assembly designed to give more discretion and authority to judges and prosecutors. The court reform package advocates increasing the number of divisions at the superior court level from four to eight. The plan would also give district attorneys more latitude and first-degree murder cases, and it would allow magistrates who are lawyers to grant uncontested divorces. The proposals are the outgrowth of recommendations put forward by a state commission more than two years ago. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather, highs in the west will hover around the 60-degree mark.

Hides in the upper seventies are expected elsewhere. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast for Friday, with some mountain areas possibly seeing rain. In business news, a second natural gas pipeline linking North and South Carolina is in the works. A subsidiary of South Carolina Pipeline Corporation will develop the pipeline in an effort to supply natural gas to growing regions in both states. Last month, Carolina Power and Light and Southern Natural Gas Company announced plans for the construction of a separate 175-mile pipeline to run between the Tar Hill State and the Pow Meadow State. The spring run of the international home furnishings market got underway today. 1998 was the best year ever recorded for the industry, but economic indicators are singing a note of cautious optimism this time around. However, some furniture industry observers are wondering whether the good times for the furniture industry will continue, with interest rates remaining low and housing being strong. Nevertheless, some industry analysts are expecting business to soften soon. And now, for a look at what happened on Wall Street today.

Winston Salem is one of five cities in the country chosen to participate in a new federal program designed to crack down on juvenile crime. Strategic approaches to community safety initiatives sponsored by the Justice Department is a two-year program which encourages police, educators, prosecutors and social workers to study juvenile crime and design more effective tools to fight it.

Joining me now is U.S. Attorney Walter Holton of North Carolina's Middle District. Mr. Holton, welcome to the program. Well, thank you for having me. I'm delighted to be here and appreciate this opportunity. Well, it's an exciting program. Why don't you tell us a little bit more about it? Sure. This is an initiative that's building upon some very successful efforts that have occurred across the country. And it really started in Boston with some research from a gentleman there named David Kennedy at Harvard, who was very successful in deciding or determining some of the underlying causes of youth violence in Boston and in helping to fashion an effective program to reduce it. So what we're doing here is there are a group of researchers at Wake Forest and at Winston Salem State that are getting together and they're researching what? Well, to take a step back, the underlying principle is before we develop a solution to a problem, let's back up and be sure we understand it.

And that's what the researchers are helping us do. It provides a real luxury force to have this amount of data to fashion solutions on. But they're taking a look at the juvenile violent acts and we're focusing on violent crime in particular among juveniles that be in 17 and under age group that have occurred in Winston Salem over the last two years. And they're doing about 160, 170 case studies of the individual acts. They're looking at the data that has been developed by the various agencies involved. But most importantly, they're interviewing the frontline workers, excuse me, who deal with these young people and who really have a grasp of what's going on. And this information helps you how? Well, it helps in several different ways. The first thing it does is it has defined for us certain areas of the city which appear to be magnets for juvenile violence. And there seem to be several underlying causes. The research has really sort of led us in three directions. One of those causes may be the influence of drugs such as crack cocaine and the accessibility to handguns.

Some of the other causes appear to be some of the geographic features of this particular or a particular area of the city. For example, there may be payphones which are facilitating the drug trade. There may be dead in streets or abandoned houses that tend to draw or magnets for violent crime among younger people. And so the research is pointing out those sorts of things which is extremely valuable information which is based on local knowledge and which typically we don't have when we're trying to develop solutions to these problems. But is that big of a revelation? I mean, if I were to tell you what I thought were the causes of juvenile crime, I'd probably mention substance abuse and demographics and where the kids live. Sure. I know you would tell me that but the real big piece here and what's so exciting and when you talk to the frontline workers, the police officers and the social workers and the probation officers involved, rarely do people ask them what is really going on here, what is causing this. Much less asked them in a comprehensive fashion. So it seems sometimes incredibly simple and you wonder why have we not done this before. But we're doing it now and it's been tremendously effective.

Now this comprehensive approach is rather unique than the current way that we've been trying to tackle juvenile crime. That's correct and unique in this sense. And again, as we said, we've never had the researchers at the table with us. Typically what will happen is we will see a problem. We'll throw some solution at it and then maybe bring in an evaluation team to evaluate whether we were right or we were wrong with our sort of guess at how to solve it. But this is different. This brings the researchers in on the front end of the process. They sit at the table with us and we collectively evaluate what is taking place and we collectively design solutions. So the researchers are, their name is on the dotted line just as much as ours is and they're not simply objective evaluators as typically they are. What do you hope will come from this program?

Well, we're really hoping for two or three things. The first one is a rather dramatic and significant decrease in juvenile violence in Winston-Salem in fairly short term. And by short term, I'm talking in months, not in years. Secondly, again, where the researchers are helpful is for us to document and track very carefully what we do, the mistakes we make as well as our successes and we have made some mistakes and we will make some. But so that we know what appears to be working. This is really, Ms. Reno, the Attorney General's plan to use these five cities. We're doing something different in each of the five. So that when we finish, we can share our successes and we can share our errors with other communities across North Carolina and across the country. Mr. Holton, it sounds like an exciting program and I really appreciate you taking the time to share the information with us. Well, it's great to be here. And again, thank you for having me. Thank you.

Now, the other four cities chosen to take part in the Strategic Approaches Initiative are Memphis, Portland, New Haven and Indianapolis. Music Research triangle park is celebrating a birthday of sorts. Over the past four decades, its leaders have taken an area once deeply rooted in tobacco and textiles to the leading edge of research-based technology. Producer Gail Hurd tells us how the world's largest research and technology center got its start. The contributions at this park has truly been statewide. And in many respects, I think you could have to say that they're really nationwide, maybe even worldwide.

It was the idea of an ambitious group of North Carolinians to establish a research center that would jumpstart the state's economy and keep talented science and engineering graduates from Duke, UNC and NC State working in the state. 40 years ago, the area we have come to know as research triangle park was the vision of a few men. Greensboro contractor Romeo Guest, who coined the phrase research triangle, Wacovia bank president Robert Haines and state secretary Brandon Hodges met in 1954 with Governor Luther Hodges on the idea. Wacovia executive Archie Davis and UNC sociology professor George Simpson signed on later. They looked at the old line stable industries for which North Carolina was leading at the time in the manufacturer of textiles, tobacco and wood products. But they knew that those industries would not provide the kind of challenging employment that we needed to take North Carolina into the years ahead.

Although the park broke ground in 1959, the vision for a university supported research center started in the 1920s by UNC professor Dr. Howard Odom. It wasn't until 1954 that Guest received support for his research triangle concept. Research was said to become a business all into itself. There was a big expansion of research following World War II and somehow the South hadn't participated. And so the field was wide open. By 1956, the research triangle committee was incorporated to raise funds to build the park. And on October 1st of 1956, Dr. George Simpson and I started to work in two vacant offices in downtown Raleigh, diagonally across from the Capitol. Our telephone was sitting in the middle of the floor and Robert Haines, who was a great leader in our state, went to his furniture manufacturing friends and they gave us two desk and eight chairs. And we were in business.

With a $35,000 budget, being in business meant raising funds and acquiring land. Enter master fundraiser Archie Davis, his idea to make RTP nonprofit, put it in the black. Archie went out and raised two million dollars to get the park started. He went across the state soliciting funds and he made a major commitment of his own time and interest in the park. The committee identified and purchased 4,500 acres of pine forest between Raleigh and Durham and with that, pylons incorporated it was formed to manage land sales. For a research center that's known internationally, few know RTP's history. Those who lived it will never forget what it was like to be a part of this success story. I think you'd have to say it was a climate of excitement and hopeful expectation.

Bill Little was a 27 year old UNC assistant professor when he joined the group. It was an interesting period particularly for a young assistant professor like I was in the chemistry department at Chapel Hill to be a part of an effort to really make this area into one of the scientific centers in the United States. It was work, but it was very exciting because we felt that we had this idea that we were promoting. Elizabeth Acock was George Simpson secretary and the second employee at RTP. She says not everyone was a supportive of the project at first. Some people were excited. I wouldn't say everybody was excited. There were many people and I had a number of people tell me friends, associates, and Raleigh. It'll never go. It'll never fly. Because it was a grand idea.

Not only was it grand, RTP was a bold idea, but to take shape it needed a centerpiece. Research Triangle Institute was conceived to attract research and development contracts and put RTP on the national map. RTP's first major client and now the funk company named Kempstrand got the ball rolling and other businesses signed on. But there were problems. There were only two paved roads going in and out of the park and then things slowed down for a few years until the mid-60s when two things happened. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences was built. That enticed a corporate giant to take a walk through the park. I think IBM helped turn the corner, helped legitimize research. Dick Dockardy spent 22 years here as president of IBM. He says the reasons big blue move to the Triangle are as valid today as they were in 1965. Quality of life, a high quality workforce, close proximity to major universities, and... The reputation the state had and still has and we found to be true of cooperation between education, government, and industry on key matters that were good for economic development for the state of North Carolina.

All four of those reasons are important then and now and I think we made a very good decision. Today RTP is the world's largest planned research park sitting on over 6,900 acres with more than 135 companies. The three universities collectively conduct almost $600 million in research annually. So has RTP met its founders' expectations? The handful of people that were involved in the early days, everyone would have said yes to that question. We did expect it to happen. Now maybe not on the same time frame, but I think that's in my earlier comment, hope, and expectation. These were there, we believed it, we believed it. RTP is home to 135 companies which employ more than 50,000 people and has capital investments of over $2 billion.

And that's all we've got time for tonight. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you tomorrow. Good night. Music