Column: Greetings from Ellie Kinnaird

Dear Friends,
I am a member of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety. This week, we heard a report on a new judicial department program to help those who receive a traffic ticket avoid a court appearance (and lawyer’s fee) by paying the fine and court costs by credit card. Between March and December 2011, 167,473 total citation payments were made by credit card—330 per day. This saved not only the public, but 7,600 of courthouse staff hours.
In addition, in three pilot counties, court papers can be filed electronically and court notices and information can be retrieved online 24 hours a day.
While this seems logical and efficient, there are a couple of bumps in the way. First, while the fine and court costs are fixed, credit card companies charge a fee that can’t be taken out of the fine and court costs. So either the state has to eat the fees through an appropriation—which add up to a large amount—or the credit card companies have to allow a transaction surcharge. MasterCard and American Express allow the state a government discount, but VISA will not. (Now only the Revenue Department will take payment by VISA card.) The state also has not installed the machines in the court house for direct credit card payment at the site. The legislature could investigate that at a later time.
But a bigger concern is that under the present system a person can go to court and get a deferred prosecution if they attend driving school. But when a fine and court costs are paid by credit card, that opportunity is not available. In addition, the infraction is on the person’s record for insurance purposes. And under our appropriations system, those monies collected do not go to the courts to offset the costs to the court system but to the general fund.
Another report was presented to the committee by Legal Aid of North Carolina and the two independent legal service offices. The average person served by these entities has an annual income of $12,000 (contrast that with the 1 percent who may make $12,000 an hour.) Legal Aid clients are working families, children, the elderly, and 75 percent are women. In addition to attorneys, paralegals and support staff, thousands of lawyers throughout the state provide pro bono work for clients, including several legislator-lawyers. Legal Aid provides free legal services for low-income people facing the loss of a home, family livelihood and personal safely. They do not handle personal injury, medical malpractice or criminal matters. Legal Aid has suffered big cuts in the last few budgets, even as the need has increased during the recession.

Two years ago, a bill was introduced to regulate and curtail the offenses of puppy mills. The bill passed the Senate but did not pass the House because special interest groups lobbied to kill the bill, e.g. the Pork Council was concerned because such humane treatment requirements might be applied to their industry. Last week a bull dog puppy mill was discovered and hundreds of dogs in terrible condition were rescued from deplorable surroundings. These businesses go on throughout the state, as are revealed by news items. Time to pass the bill.
I also attended the circus with my granddaughter and was upset to see magnificent tigers, elephants and horses forced to perform tricks such as standing and walking on their hind legs and laying down in formations on command. Some years ago, Orange County banned circuses with animals, and, after seeing these animals forced to perform unnatural activities, foreign from their natural habitat, I understand why.

I have written in the past about Person Industries that serves the disabled. PI operates the recycling for Person County, employing many Person Industries people and helping the environment. PI has now have added another environmental measure: LED lighting and motion sensors to activate lights in rooms used infrequently. They are indeed leaders in the community.

On Feb. 20 at 11 a.m., a Town Hall Meeting will be held in the Legislative auditorium, titled “Bring Our War Dollars Home/Restore Our Communities." It will connect the huge amount spent (more than $1 trillion for Iraq and Afghanistan) on wars while our schools, mental health and other needs are not being met at home. Congressmen Walter Jones, David Price and Brad Miller will speak along with Matthew Hoh, the State Department officer to Afghanistan and former Marine who resigned in protest over our policy in Afghanistan. The public is invited.

An interesting observation from Rapper Ja Rule, serving time in prison, commenting on his fellow inmates, former N. Y. State Comptroller and Tyco International CEO, “Outside, you don’t meet guys like this every day.”
Ellie

Column: Gen Zers—your Social Security may depend on them

By D.G. Martin
UNC-TV host

Gen Z, I thought to myself, what in the world is that?
Because it was the theme of the annual Emerging Issues Forum in Raleigh last week, I knew I was behind the times.
Just so you will not be so far behind, here are some basics. Gen Z is shorthand for Generation Z, young people born during the nineties and the early part of the current century. Not everybody agrees on the exact dates, but the Emerging Issues Institute defines Gen Z as “today’s 9-to-21 year-olds.”
Why label them with the letter Z?
They follow Generation Y, the group born during the 15 years or so before the nineties, sometimes called Echo Boomers because they are the children of the Baby Boomers.
Before Generation Y came Generation X, those born in the late 1960s into the 1970s. “Newsweek” characterized them as “the generation that dropped out without ever turning on the news or tuning in to the social issues around them.” Hence, they are sometimes called the Lost Generation. They were preceded by the post-World War II generation known as Baby Boomers.
Why would the important Emerging Issues Forum focus on Gen Z, the demographic group that is mostly still living at home and not working, or voting, or making policy?
The forum sponsor and speakers quickly delivered a series of answers. In 2020 this new generation “will be the 18-to-30-year-olds comprising the emerging core of our state’s workforce.”
Baby Boomer retirees will be dependent on the productivity and earning power of Gen Z workers to pay Social Security premiums and other taxes that will fund the Boomers’ retiree benefits.
Politicians will not have to wait. This year, the early cohort of Gen Zers will go to polls and help settle the question of who runs our governments.
Gary Pearce, longtime political consultant to former Governor Jim Hunt, told me he would advise a candidate for governor to hire 20 Gen Zers to work full time sending out tweet messages to stir up interest and deliver timely messages about the candidate’s positions and proposals.
At the Emerging Issues Forum, Pearce learned that Gen Zers send an average 3,000 tweets each month. Receiving and sending message after message is their way of getting current information. Breaking into that system of information exchange is as important in reaching Gen Zers as television has been to reach the Baby Boomers.
Although Pearce is much too old to be a Gen Zer, he says he entered the tweeting community and now gets almost all his current political information by following the tweets of political activists.
Some people at the forum wanted to jerk the iPhones and other devices from the hands and ears of the Gen Zers, who seem addicted to them. They feel young people suffer too much from the loss of personal, face-to-face interaction. But others, like Pearce, are upbeat about the new fast-moving communication that the Gen Zers have mastered.
Machines like the ones the Gen Zers use to send their tweets will continue to revolutionize the work place. Factories and offices will continue to increase efficiency. The good news is that factory and office workers will be more and more productive. The bad news is that the more efficient working places will need fewer and fewer workers.
Still, good jobs directing designing, building and directing the new equipment will be available for Gen Zers who are educated, directed and trained.
The challenge for the rest of us is to be sure North Carolina’s systems of education and training are up to the task of preparing the Gen Zers for opportunities that will be available.
We have at least one good reason to make sure it happens: The retirement income for us older generations depends on the prosperity and success of the Gen Zers.

D.G. Martin hosts UNC-TV’s "North Carolina Bookwatch," which returns Sunday at 5 p.m. For more information or to view prior programs, visit the webpage at www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

Column: My coach did not spit on anybody’s hand

By: D.G. Martin
UNC-TV host

It is too bad that sports reporters and historians at Atlantic Coast Conference headquarters are not reading “ACC Basketball.” This UNC Press book by Sam Walker was published last year and chronicles the game during the conference’s first 20 years.
On the other hand, maybe it is a good thing for my old basketball coach, Lefty Driesell.
How do I know sports reporters and ACC staffers are not reading the new book? It came out in the controversy that developed about UNC Coach Roy Williams taking most of his players off the court 14 seconds before the game ended in Carolina’s recent loss to Florida State. Williams thought the game was ending early. One story line in the following days was about other times that ACC basketball games ended early.
After checking with an ACC staffer, the Raleigh News & Observer reported, “As best as anyone can tell, UNC's loss at Florida State would have been just the second ACC game to end before time expired. The first time it happened—and apparently the only time—came in Maryland's 60-55 home victory against N.C. State on Jan. 7, 1967.”
If the ACC and N&O had read “ACC Basketball,” they would have found, on page 2, Sam Walker’s description of another early game ending when Maryland played South Carolina in Columbia. “On December 16, 1970, South Carolina was cruising to an easy victory when, with 4:52 remaining in the game, two players got into a shoving and elbow-throwing skirmish. Both benches rushed to the aid of their teammates, and a slugfest broke out. As Driesell tried to separate players and stop the melee, he was struck twice by South Carolina forward John Ribock. The fracas continued for about four minutes before police managed to halt the fighting and the referees decided to end the game.”
That story of another early ending is not the “good thing” for Coach Driesell.
When I read and enjoyed “ACC Basketball,” I asked UNC Press to send him a copy, thinking he would enjoy some of the stories about him.
I was wrong. Driesell called me the day after he got the book. “I’m going to sue them,” he said. He pointed to a paragraph in the book about the recruitment of basketball star Charlie Scott in 1966. Scott was headed to Davidson, where Driesell was coaching, until Coach Dean Smith persuaded him to go to Carolina. It said that when Smith and Driesell met afterwards, “Smith offered his hand to Driesell and said something along the lines of ‘no hard feelings.’ A fuming Driesell indicated that there were indeed some hard feelings by spitting on Smith’s outstretched palm.”
Driesell was livid. “I would never spit on anybody’s hand. That is terrible.”
He was worried about his friends’ reactions and especially about what “Dean’s family would think.”
Thanks to ECU athletic director, and Driesell’s assistant coach at the time, Terry Holland, the book’s version was corrected. Holland told Walker and UNC Press that “I was standing right beside Coach Driesell and can guarantee that there was no ‘spitting’ involved.”
As a result, the new printing of “ACC Basketball” revises its report to say simply, “Driesell looked down at Smith’s hand and shook his head to indicate that he was not ready to concede defeat.”
So the good thing for Driesell about reporters not reading “ACC Basketball” yet, is that when they do, he can hope they will read the revised version and not see a word about spitting.
“But what about people who read the earlier version?” Driesell asked me.
“All I can do,” I told him, “is write a column that says you didn’t spit in anybody’s hand, and my readers will know the truth.”

D.G. Martin hosts UNC-TV’s "North Carolina Bookwatch," which airs Sundays at 5 p.m. For more information or to view prior programs, visit the webpage at www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

Column: Greetings from Ellie Kinnaird

Dear Friends,
We were all surprised when Gov. Bev Perdue decided not to file for re-election. Gov. Perdue has been a courageous fighter for education, the environment and the rights of all people in our state. Her vetoes and work for an adequate budget for all levels of education made a difference in the lives of all in North Carolina.

As the rising cost of energy, continued reliance on fossil fuels and the possible merger of the two investor-owned utilities gains attention, I want to feature our electric cooperatives. Orange County is the home of Piedmont EMC (Electric Cooperative) that is celebrating its 75th Anniversary next year as a Cooperative. If you go to http://gocoop.com/gocoop-news/united-nations-declares-2012-year-co-operatives you can find out about the "year of the Cooperative" and the many cooperatives in North Carolina and in the U.S.
Electric cooperatives were begun to extend electricity to rural areas in the 1930's when the big companies would not lay lines where there wasn’t enough density to pay for the cost. The same problem exists now with the extension of Broadband where the big players will not lay lines because there are not enough homes to make it cost effective. Several towns decided on their own to set up broadband companies to serve their customers. But the Republican leadership saw this as competition for for-profit companies and prohibited any more cities from extending broadband to their service area. They allowed those communities that had already issued bonds to continue, but no more cities can get into the broadband business.

Last week I attended the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting. The chamber has grown to more than 1,000 members. They have special awards, one of which was for sustainable growth. It was won by Strata Solar, which has grown to a business that not only sells solar products but installs throughout the state.
Tourism continues to be an economic engine for Orange County. Hotel use was up 12.2 percent in December over 2010. Our hotels and restaurants benefit when sports events bring thousands to our towns, and Hillsborough benefits from its nurturing and preservation of its historic past.

Last session, the legislature allowed greatly expanded clear cutting of trees around billboards. The billboard industry had been working for years to increase the clear-cut areas but had been unable to get their bills passed (except a bill that would have banned billboards on Interstate 40 from Chapel Hill to Wilmington).
Those of us who opposed the bill tried to get a requirement in the bill that the billboard companies must replant with small trees such as dogwoods and crepe myrtles in clear-cut areas. But this week, when the Rules Review Commission looked at the rules for requiring replanting in clear-cut areas, they decided the bill did not give authority to require the companies to replant. Therefore, any replanting the billboard companies do will be only voluntary. We have such a beautiful state, and to mar it by clear cutting around billboards is bad for tourism as well as our own enjoyment as we travel throughout the state.

Occupy and the 99% movement seems to have affected the Republican primaries. Regardless of the motives, the fact that the Republicans are discussing this topic shows that grassroots action can have an impact.
“If people don’t say what they think, I don’t see how you expect the democratic system of government to work at all.”—Harry Truman
Ellie Kinnaird

Column: Opening ever so slightly

By D.G. Martin
UNC-TV host

It is the kind of surprise for which every ambitious politician must be prepared: the unexpected decision by an incumbent elected official to retire.
It is, my friend Jay Rivers told me, the kind of window of opportunity that opens ever so slightly and rarely. Be ready to decide quickly and pounce on the unexpected opportunity before the window closes as a result of others’ decisive action.
John Spratt, the former South Carolina congressman, once told me about his first campaign. It started when his congressman dropped the bombshell that he would not run for reelection. Many other ambitious politicians would have loved to go to Congress, but all were surprised and unprepared to gear up a campaign. Spratt, though surprised, was ready. Sometime earlier he had made a telephone list of key people in his district. Before the day was over, he called everybody on the list.
First, he asked for their support. He tried to get them to make a solid endorsement. When seasoned political leaders make such early commitments, most try to keep them. There are exceptions, but whatever their failings, such leaders like to have a reputation for keeping their word.
Politicians, like the rest of us, have a hard time turning down a request for support from a friend. Although the people on Spratt’s list had other friends who might have wanted to run, Spratt got their commitments because he was first to ask.
Some on Spratt’s list would be more cautious, saying something like, “I am not ready to commit.” Spratt would try to get them to promise not to support anyone else until the dust settled and “we’ve had a chance to visit again.”
Others might tell Spratt that they liked him but that he would not be their first choice, saying, “I really hope Joe Blow will decide to run, and, if he does, I will have to support him.”
Then Spratt might ask, “If Joe doesn’t run, can I count on your support?”
All this early work garnered Spratt important supporters, some of whom might have gone to other candidates if he had not asked first.
Spratt’s first campaign was 30 years ago, but being first to make the calls is still critical.
Today, however, there is something even more important: Being ready, willing and able to raise or give the multimillion dollars necessary to conduct the campaign.
When today’s political candidate makes these early calls for support, the first questions from many people will be, “Where is your money going to come from? Do you have enough personal money to put in the pot? Where are you going to get the millions and millions it takes to win?”
After Gov. Beverly Perdue’s announcement that she will not run this year, Lt. Governor Walter Dalton and state Rep. Bill Faison were ready. They have the advantage of being first to make the public request for support.
But as they are making calls and asking for commitments, they have to respond to the money questions. Faison has some personal wealth, but he will have to persuade prospective supporters that he has enough money and is willing to spend it. Dalton has shown he can raise funds to win a statewide race, but he will have to convince people that he can step up the fundraising to a much higher level.
Both are getting some cautious responses from people who think Erskine Bowles would be the strongest Democratic candidate or those loyal to one of the many other possible candidates.
But there is something nobody can take away from Dalton and Faison. They were ready. They are out there, making early calls. And they have a better chance to win than if they had waited until that window of opportunity started to close.

D.G. Martin hosts UNC-TV’s "North Carolina Bookwatch," which airs Sundays at 5 p.m. For more information or to view prior programs, visit the webpage at www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

Column: Does time heal all wounds?

By D.G. Martin
UNC-TV host

Will John Edwards someday be the new Newt Gingrich?
Where did this crazy question come from? To get the answer, read on.
First, we should wrestle with the questions political experts have been stuttering over since Gingrich’s stunning upset of Mitt Romney in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary last weekend.
How can a candidate like Gingrich get over the deathblows his campaign suffered in Iowa and New Hampshire?
How can he sidestep the disgrace from the damning condemnation of his colleagues in the House of Representatives who censured him for misconduct 15 years ago?
How can he get around the moral consequences of his conduct in the breakup of two earlier marriages?
How does he get around the lack of support from people who worked with him when he was House speaker?
How does he get around the panic shown by so-called establishment Republicans who believe his nomination for president would lead to a disaster for their party in the fall?
How can these questions be answered? It would be easy to say, simply, that South Carolina voters are different. From John C. Calhoun to Strom Thurmond, South Carolinians have shown a fondness for brilliant, confrontational, no-holds-barred, attack- dog politicians. Newt fit their bill. But what about other states?
Both Calhoun and Thurmond had fans in other states. How about Gingrich? We will begin to find out next week in Florida.
Whatever the results in Florida and elsewhere, Gingrich has shown that time really can heal old wounds in politics. Even the most conservative religious voters in South Carolina showed that they were willing to forgive the sins of a seemingly penitent person.
The South Carolina results show us that, after the passage of time, voters are not bound by earlier judgments about a politician’s sins.
John Edwards may be trying to take advantage of this lesson.
The health problem that was the basis for the delay in his trial is a real one. An irregular heartbeat has bothered Edwards for many years. Still, delay may be part of his trial team’s strategy.
Every delay puts the management of the trial further away from the influence of the zealous investigation and prosecution led by former U.S. Attorney George Holding. He is running for Congress rather than continuing to lead the determined effort to put Edwards in jail.
Greater and greater distance from Holding increases the possibility that less-driven prosecutors will see the benefits of making a deal with Edwards that would free them to concentrate their efforts on getting other criminals off the streets.
Every delay works to distance the minds of potential jurors from the heavy and negative publicity that accompanied Edwards’s downfall. With the passing of time, jurors may be less likely to punish Edwards simply for being the bad person the news stories made him out to be.
Every delay lessens public interest in the case and the strength of any public demand that he be held accountable.
Every delay puts the public’s memory further away from his relevance as a public figure whose extraordinary gifts almost made him a vice president, almost a president.
Thus every delay could increase the chances that Edwards will win an acquittal if the case ultimately goes to trial or, even more likely, that there will be an acceptable plea bargain offer from prosecutors.
Back to our opening question: If Edwards does walk away from his legal troubles, could he, with the passage of time—say 10 years from now—bring his gifts of persuasion and charisma back into the political arena and have some of those who have written him off today declare him to be the new Newt Gingrich?

D.G. Martin hosts UNC-TV’s "North Carolina Bookwatch," which airs Sundays at 5 p.m. For more information or to view prior programs, visit the webpage at www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

Column: Greeting from Sen. Kinnaird

Dear Friends,
Last week I attended a news conference of the coalition of Partners Against Human Trafficking on the National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness. The campaign runs through Feb. 1, the date the 13th Amendment ending slavery was passed. Information may be found by writing to pathnc@mindspring.com. In addition to bringing to the public’s attention the devastating human trafficking business, they recognized people who have worked to stop this unspeakable activity. The recognition included a young Asheville high school girl who is raising money for a shelter for trafficked teens, the Salvation Army and local groups throughout the state that are providing shelter for rescued victims. Legal Aid provides legal help to keep the victims from being deported back to the country that trafficked them to the U.S.
Human trafficking is the largest criminal enterprise after drug trafficking. In fact, many of the major drug traffickers also deal in human trafficking. This horrific activity that occurs throughout the world, including the United States, preys on young girls and some boys who are then subjected to rape and sexual abuse. North Carolina has both sex and labor trafficking, where Interstate 95/40 is a major route. The press conference emphasized that this is modern-day slavery. Part of the awareness campaign is to stop the buying of the victims, asking, “who is the buyer?”
I was the author of both the criminal statutes on trafficking and services to provide shelter, sustenance and legal protection to victims.


I serve on the Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on Crime Control and Public Safety. One of the recurring questions is how to measure workload to determine pay for our court personnel: clerks, judges, district attorneys, etc. Studies on those groups have been done in the past, and this year the Judicial Department Workload Formulas were brought before the committee by the Administrative Office of the Courts to determine Superior Court workload to pay. The report, requested by the General Assembly, looked at workload indicators from the past and a 2007 collaboration with the National Center for State Courts. To determine a formula that is data driven, the report focuses on the most common work performed.
The questions are whether some counties and districts have more judges than they need while others are severely shorthanded. (Of course, this will stop the practice of legislators getting extra judges for their district to satisfy constituents.) Judges will be asked to keep track of their tasks and the time spent on each task for a month. In addition, there is a weighting system as not all cases use the same amount of time to complete. The cases range from traffic, to DWI all the way to sex crimes and first-degree murder. They have assigned the time in minutes, e.g. traffic cases at four to six minutes all the way to 10,172 minutes for first-degree murder.
Using this formula, the budget should have (but didn’t) included the addition of 354 assistant and deputy clerks, 69 additional district court judges, 100 district attorneys and 47.5 victim witness/legal assistants. This study of our court system shows the legislature takes the use of tax-payer money into consideration on a continuing basis.

I am relieved we have left Iraq and now hope we will leave Afghanistan as soon as possible (though not 2014.) The shocking allegations against four Marines that emerged this last week remind me of Rep. Barbara Lee’s (D- CA) statement explaining her vote against the Afghanistan war, “Let us not become the evil that we deplore."
A general, while in no way condoning the acts of the Marines, pointed out that it is a difficult situation when young men are taught to kill, to keep parameters on war-time actions. On this weekend honoring Martin Luther King Jr., we remember that the Rev. King was excoriated for opposing the Vietnam War, but, as the case with so much of his vision, he was proved right. His words inspire us today. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
Let us affirm our beliefs in spiritual uplift.
Ellie

Column: Learning about North Carolina from a favorite mystery writer

By: D.G. Martin
UNC-TV host

What is the best book I could read to learn about North Carolina?
I get this question all the time from people who know about my interest in books about our state and those written by our great writers.
My answer differs, depending on what kind of books my questioner likes to read.

For instance, if the questioner likes murder mysteries, I will tell them to read one of the 17 books in Margaret Maron’s Deborah Knott series. Knott is a smart country woman lawyer who is now a state district court judge in rural Colleton County east of Raleigh. Colleton is a fictional county that might be Johnston, or, more likely, Harnett, in the area where Maron grew up and, after a few years in New York, has been settled for many years.
Whatever the name or whichever the real county is Knott’s home, it is home to typical and real North Carolina small-town and rural life. Deborah Knott is smart and good but not perfect. She comes from a large farm family led by her father Kezzie Knott and populated by 12 children from Kezzie’s two marriages, plus spouses and numerous grandchildren.
Kezzie has not always been a simple farmer. For instance, his other activities were the basis for the title of the first book in the series published in 1992, “Bootlegger’s Daughter.”
Having a former bootlegger as Judge Knott’s daddy and a few other mischievous kinfolk whose lives sometimes intersect with the law add a special spice to Maron’s stories.
Knott‘s many friends and work colleagues also enrich Maron’s books. Everybody in Colleton County seems to know everybody else. Rich and poor; black, white and Hispanic; farmers and townspeople; old and young; good and bad. We meet them dealing with problems of the environment, migrant worker issues, hurricane damage, political shenanigans, real estate development and other challenges in addition to the murder mysteries that move every book along.
Every now and then, Maron moves the action to other North Carolina scenes. The furniture market. The Seagrove pottery community. Or the mountains and the coast. Along the way, Maron’s readers get a good look at our state and its people.
Maron brings back many of the same characters in book after book. She makes them so real and compelling that some fans say they read the books just to keep up with Deborah’s family. Most important in recent books has been a deputy sheriff named Dwight Bryant. First, he was one of many characters. He worked his way up to boyfriend, then fiancée and now new husband. Maron stretched out that courtship over several books, reminding this reader of the courtship of Father Tim and Cynthia in the Mitford series of books written by another popular North Carolina author, Jan Karon.
In her latest book, “Three Day Town,” Deborah and Dwight are on their way to New York City for a long-delayed honeymoon. On the way out of town, Deborah cannot keep her mind from her work, thinking about what confronts her when she gets back, a custody battle involving two casual friends. Judge Knott did not want to handle the case, but all the other judges had even closer connections, and “they both want me and they both swore they would abide by whatever ruling I made without bitching about it afterwards.”
Knott knows the two so well that she is already wrestling with which one would be the better parent, even before she has heard the first argument in her court.
But Maron and Judge Knott leave this problem behind and find a more serious one in a friend’s New York apartment. There, before you know it, the building superintendent has been murdered, a whole covey of likely suspects present themselves, and the reader is surrounded by intriguing puzzles that only a talent like Margaret Maron can devise for the pleasure of her readers.


D.G. Martin hosts UNC-TV’s "North Carolina Bookwatch," which airs Sundays at 5 p.m. For more information or to view prior programs, visit the webpage at www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

A note from Sen. Ellie Kinnaird

Dear Friends,               Two big pieces of news this week: the bills Gov. Perdue has vetoed and the release of the Congressional maps.  I’ll go through the vetoed bills in next week’s newsletter. The pertinent story on the Congressional maps for Orange and Person counties are the changes to their districts.  What is startling about David Price’s 4th District is that no longer is it tied to a common “community of interest” of the Triangle, which is one of the criteria in drawing the lines, but reaches from Hillsborough in Orange County to Fayetteville in Cumberland County!  I’m not sure those military folks feel a common tie to the peaceniks in Orange County.   Representative Miller’s district encompassing Person County is about the same as his present district, with the addition of some strongly Republican precincts in Wake County.  David won’t have any trouble being elected since his district is packed with Democrats, but Brad will have a hard time with the new precincts.  Talk about gerrymandering.  The districts look like a scoop of the weirdest looking sea creatures ever seen pasted on a map ofNorth Carolina.  The map is available online for those who want to see it.           State legislative districts are drawn entirely differently because the Republicans 10 years ago objected to the Democrats' map using the same tactics and went to court.  What resulted is that counties must be kept whole and be contiguous.  Were that so in the Congressional districts. Now for more wrap up of bills passed.                          As a result of the Study bill, some good issues will be thoroughly looked at.  The Department of Commerce in conjunction with the NC Utilities Commission and the NC Solar Center—that was the program that was cut out of the House budget and fortunately restored in the Senate budget—will study the recruitment of offshore wind turbine and solar manufacturers.  This will encourage job creation and recruitment of industries to North Carolina that are thriving in Europe and China.  We need to develop that industry here. What seemed like a good idea turned into one of controversy.  One of our Democratic Senators along with several House members sponsored a bill called the Founding Principles Act to require the teachings of the founders of our country.  It would explain the structure of government, the separation of powers with checks and balances, equal justice under the law, due process, individual rights as set forth in the Bill of Rights, among other subjects.  But it had a few stumbling blocks, which we thought we had removed.  But in the end there was a hue and cry that this was a subterfuge by the far right to inject the teaching of religion and the exalting of private property into the high school curriculum. (A passing grade is required in the course.)  There is also concern that it will replace existing courses that are broader in scope. Parking when visiting a museum or the capital will cost more.  Currently it so $ per hour but will double to $2.  (When is a tax not a tax—well about $100 million of these fees in the budget?)  That might be a burden on a family, but luckily, the museums are still free. Former incarcerated people can now earn a certificate that will allow them to obtain a professional license to get employment.  Finding a decent job when a person has a conviction is very difficult and leads to the revolving door to prison where housing a prisoner costs $27,000 a year.  Steady employment is critical in determining whether a person will commit another crime or become a productive member of society.  Without that help, most come back to prison within three years. This will change current law that anyone convicted of a felony is prohibited from obtaining licenses for about 700 occupations.  Law enforcement, faith and non-profit groups supported the bill.  North Carolina has allowed countless special message license plates.  This year, the controversy grew over two issues: the color and pictures of background of the plates people are so fond of and adding a Choose Life plate.   Because there are such a large variety of plates, law enforcement can’t always tell the are North Carolina plates.  They would like a single, uniform, instantly recognizable plate. I contend that people who buy such plates aren’t likely to be criminals.   (I ran a plate for libraries some years ago, but they didn’t sell the required 300.  All you library lovers help us out.)     The other controversy was over the Choose Life plate. I spoke against it because no plate has ever carried a political or controversial message. Those of us opposed to the plate offered an amendment that would have said Respect Choice, but it failed to pass.   I voted against the bill that passed easily with but one Republican dissent, and the Governor signed it into law. Another controversial bill, even within our Democratic Caucus, was the E-verify bill. This bill requires employers to use a federal system called E-Verify to confirm that the people they hire are in the country legally.  There are two large exemptions: it only applies to employers of 25 workers or more.  That might exempt landscapers, janitor services, even some small restaurants. Contractors could also hire sub-contractors with fewer than 25 people as a subterfuge. The other exemption is for agricultural employers who hire workers for only up to 90 days.   There are those who feel that employers take advantage of workers they know are here illegally, and underpay (or sometimes don’t even pay them), thus driving down wages for legal workers.  An African-American construction worker told me he would often approach an employer to ask for work, only to be told they weren’t hiring, but the next day he would see several Hispanic workers there.  On the other side, when illegal workers are deported because of this program, it breaks up families.  Large companies already use E-verify so the loop-holes mean that not much will change.  Finally, the system is not always accurate, leading to some who are here legally being wrongly tagged as illegals.  Since Congress isn’t likely to pass meaningful immigration legislation, I think one of the best solutions is to pass the Dream Act.  This would allow children who were brought here by their parents at a young age and have graduated from high school to either attend college or go into the military and obtain citizenship.  I have urged our two U.S. Senators to pass this bill.  Sen. Hagan was one of the deciding votes that killed it last time around, but some say she is softening. As we enjoyed this weekend commemorating the founding of our country, please remember that, within the last two weeks, 27 of our military in Afghanistan and Iraq have died. Ellie