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Grab Your Girlfriends! A Sailor Is Seeking 300 Women to Join a Round-the-World Expedition Studying Ocean Plastics

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Adele

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A massive floating island of plastic is growing fast.

A massive floating island of plastic between California and Hawaii is growing rapidly and is now three times the size of France, a new study finds.

The giant accumulation of plastic called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch contains at least 79,000 tons discarded plastic, covering an area of about 617,800 square miles (1.6 million square kilometers), according to a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports.

That is three times the area of France and more than twice the size of Texas.

The study's authors further said, "Our results suggest that ocean plastic pollution within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is increasing exponentially."

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'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' is massive floating island of plastic, now 3 times the size of France

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A massive floating island of plastic, called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is growing fast and is now three times the size of France.

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Thelma

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Although e-cigarettes have been around for more than a decade, vaping rates have skyrocketed in recent years, especially among teens. E-cigarettes are now the most frequently used tobacco product among adolescents - some 2.1 million middle and high school students were e-cigarette users in 2017 - far surpassing traditional combustible cigarettes.

JUUL, a popular vape device that comes in fun flavors, looks like a flash drive and can be charged in a USB port, is especially concerning. JUUL delivers high levels of nicotine, making the product extremely addictive. The company that makes and markets JUUL recently exceeded a $10 billion valuation faster than any company, including Facebook. JUUL sales now make up more than half of the e-cigarette market.

The FDA announced that it will be cracking down not only on illegal sales of e-cigarettes to minors, but also the "kid-friendly marketing and appeal of these products" because "we see clear signs that youth use of electronic cigarettes has reached an epidemic proportion." And after recent unexplained illnesses and deaths that have been attributed to vaping, the CDC and the American Medical Association are expressing serious concern, recommending that people should avoid vaping entirely.

Teachers, health professionals and parents are alarmed by the growing popularity of vaping among young people and trying to educate not only teens but also themselves, as it's all still so new.

Vaping is the act of inhaling and exhaling the vapor produced by the heated nicotine liquid (often called "juice") of an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette or e-cig), vape pen, or personal vaporizer. It's also commonly called JUULing (pronounced jewel-ing).

What originated as a smoking cessation aid has quickly became a popular - and addictive - product in its own right. Sarper Taskiran, MD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Child Mind Institute, attributes the recent rise in popularity to packaging and advertising. "The teens are after innovation and they're attracted by sleek design and ease of use," he says. "They look like an Apple product."

Although vaping companies emphatically deny that they are marketing to young people, critics note such features in their advertising as youthful images and colors, animation, actors who appear to be under 21, and suggestions that vaping makes you happier and improves your social status.

Although some of the health risks associated with vaping appear to be less severe than traditional combustible cigarettes (there's no tar, for example), there are still risks.

Some known risks of vaping are:

E-cigarettes contain high levels of nicotine. According to the company's website, the nicotine content of one JUULpod is equivalent to one pack of cigarettes.

Because of these high nicotine levels, vaping is extremely addictive - and teens are already more susceptible to addiction than adults because their brains are still developing, which makes them more likely to habituate to using drugs and alcohol.

Addiction can impact the ability to focus. Dr. Taskiran has observed this with the adolescents he works with, who report that vaping initially increases their alertness and attention, but then experience a decrease in attention span. One student, for example, was able to sit through practice ACT exams but after JUULing for six months "can't sit still because she starts craving, can't think of questions, and just starts fidgeting."

E-cigarettes and similar devices contain carcinogenic compounds, and a recent study found significantly increased levels of carcinogens in the urine of teens who vape.

One study found that vaping does, in fact, cause lung irritation akin to that seen in smokers and people with lung disease and causes damage to vital immune system cells.

There have been several deaths and hundreds of cases of lung illness attributed to vaping. Right now it is unclear if the cause is bootleg cartridges containing THC or CBD oil or legal nicotine cartridges. The CDC and the American Medical Association are recommending that people avoid vaping entirely while this is being investigated.

Taskiran notes that vaping increases heart rate and blood pressure, so can increase circulatory problems. One teen he works with started vaping and found that his swim times dropped because he can no longer sustain the heart rate required for swimming.

Since they leave little odor, e-cigarettes are particularly easy to hide and even use discreetly in public places, including school. Kids are also vaping marijuana at increasing rates, which brings its own health risks.

Why parents should be concerned

One problem with vaping is that teens hear that it's not as bad for your health as smoking cigarettes and many think there is no harm. "They really think that they are mostly flavors and that they are inhaling a pleasant gas," says Dr. Taskiran.

One study of 12th graders found that kids who vaped (but were not previously smokers) were more than four times as likely to "move away from the perception of cigarettes as posing a great risk of harm." The study and others like it have showed that teens who vape are much more likely to start smoking cigarettes.

The packaging does little to convey the risks. "They are very enticing the way they look. It's not transparent at all. It says 5% nicotine, which sounds like nothing, so teens think 95% is water weight or vapor," laments Dr. Taskiran.

Plus, he points out, smoking never stopped being cool. It's still positively portrayed in movies, and JUUL in particular has re-branded it to make vaping an even cooler alternative. But vaping isn't only for the cool kids - many teens are curious (with flavors like mango, cucumber and crème, who wouldn't be?) and presented with the opportunity will give it a try.

Sarah, a mom of two in Ann Arbor, MI, was shocked to get a phone call the other day from her son's middle school principal, requiring her to come get him immediately for "emergency removal and suspension." He and two friends had been caught vaping on school grounds after school, and a passing parent took photos and sent them to the administration.

Though they didn't find any devices on her son - a straight A student with no prior offenses - the school, like many others, is taking a hard stance. "The principal knows that vaping is common and shared that the businesses in downtown Ann Arbor are selling to teens without asking for IDs," relayed Sarah. "However, she feels the need to let my son and his friends know that it's a really, really big deal."

At this school, students caught vaping have to sign behavior contracts, must attend a Teens Using Drugs Class, and cannot participate in any sports, clubs or special events for the rest of the year. If the kids had been across the street, not on school grounds, it would have been a different scenario. But the principal said that had they been in high school rather than middle school, she would have called the police.

Sarah remembers what it was like to be a teenager so doesn't think trying it is that big of a deal, but is concerned about addiction. "Addiction runs in my family and I worry about my son. Of course, I worry about the damage that the chemicals can do to his lungs and body as well," she says.

Although some places are tightening restrictions locally, kids can still go to a website, click a button that says they are at least 21 years old, and purchase online. "The majority of adolescents I see are purchasing JUUL from the Internet," says Dr. Taskiran.

How to talk to kids about vaping

Dr. Taskiran advises parents to start by educating themselves, so they know what they're talking about going in, and to take an inquisitive and curious approach to what their teen's experience is. "The most important thing is keeping it as a dialogue," he says. "Declarative statements like 'It's bad for you' just end the conversation."

Dr. Taskiran recommends starting the conversation more generally by asking if a lot of kids at school vape. Once the conversation is initiated, you can slowly work up to asking things like, "What is your experience with that? What are the flavors like?" He also suggests getting a sense of what they know (or think they know) about the product, which gives you an opening to start educating them.

The silver lining of Sarah's experience with her son is that he actually told his dad about the experience even before he knew he'd been caught. "They had a full one hour conversation about it after I was already asleep. He told my husband that he tried it for the first time and that it burned his throat and he didn't like it." She got the call from the principal the next morning before her son had a chance to tell her himself. "He's a great kid and doesn't really get in trouble except for talking in class because he's bored. My goal has always been open communication and to keep him talking to us. He did!"

Of course, while parents need to educate themselves, the onus isn't entirely on them. "Schools need to own this as well and provide educational strategies for both teachers and students," says Dr. Taskiran. Prevention is a lot easier than treatment later on, he says, and notes that peer education can play a particularly important role.

If you are concerned that your child has become addicted there are plenty of treatment options. Dr. Taskiran recommends consulting with a clinician who is well-versed in addiction treatments. "This is a true nicotine addiction," he says. "People usually think this is different from cigarette use - but it can be more severe than cigarette use."

For tips on how to talk to teenagers about vaping, check out this guide from the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I do if my teenager is vaping?

Why do teens vape?

Why is vaping bad for teens?

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Teen Vaping: What You Need to Know - Child Mind Institute

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Why do teens vape? What are the effects of vaping? Learn what are the dangers of e-cigarettes, why parents should be concerned, and get guidance on how to talk to kids about it.

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Daniel

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North Carolina is home to a small but growing immigrant community. While nearly 8 percent of the state's total population is foreign-born, immigrants make up a significant share of North Carolina's labor force. Over 44 percent of all residents working in farming, fishing, and forestry occupations are immigrants, as well as over 20 percent working in computer and math sciences. As workers, business owners, taxpayers, and neighbors, immigrants are an integral part of North Carolina's diverse and thriving communities and make extensive contributions that benefit all.
Nearly 1 in 12 North Carolina residents is an immigrant, while 1 in 15 is a native-born U.S. citizen with at least one immigrant parent.

In 2015, 794,684 immigrants (foreign-born individuals) comprised 7.9 percent of the state's population.

North Carolina was home to 359,390 women, 379,964 men, and 55,330 children who were immigrants.

The top countries of origin for immigrants were Mexico (30.6 percent of immigrants), India (7.6 percent), Honduras (4.6 percent), El Salvador (3.6 percent), and Guatemala (3.3 percent).

In 2016, 658,217 people in North Carolina (6.7 percent of the state's population) were native-born Americans who had at least one immigrant parent.

More than a third of all immigrants in North Carolina are naturalized U.S. citizens.

297,427 immigrants (37.4 percent) had naturalized as of 2015, and 136,862 immigrants were eligible to become naturalized U.S. citizens in 2015.

The majority of immigrants (72 percent) reported speaking English "well" or "very well."

Immigrants in North Carolina are distributed across the educational spectrum.

More than one-quarter of adult immigrants had a college degree or more education in 2015, while just under one-third had less than a high school diploma.
Over 200,000 U.S. citizens in North Carolina live with at least one family member who is undocumented.

350,000 undocumented immigrants comprised 43 percent of the immigrant population and 3.4 percent of the total state population in 2014.

429,169 people in North Carolina, including 186,930 born in the United States, lived with at least one undocumented family member between 2010 and 2014.

During the same period, 1 in 15 children in the state was a U.S. citizen child living with at least one undocumented family member (170,487 children in total).

More than 25,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients live in North Carolina.

As of 2016, 72percentof DACA-eligible immigrants in North Carolina, or 29,584 people, had applied for DACA.

An additional 16,000 residents of the state satisfied all but the educational requirements for DACA, and another 8,000 would be eligible as they grew older.

One in ten North Carolina workers is an immigrant, together making up a critical part of the state's labor force across industries.

521,577 immigrant workers comprised 10.7 percent of the labor force in 2015.

Immigrant workers were most numerous in the following industries:

The largest shares of immigrant workers were in the following industries:
Immigrants are an integral part of the North Carolina workforce in a range of occupations.

In 2015, immigrant workers were most numerous in the following occupation groups:

The largest shares of immigrant workers were in the following occupation groups:

Undocumented immigrants comprised 5 percent of the state's workforce in 2014.
Immigrants in North Carolina have contributed billions of dollars in taxes. As consumers, immigrants add hundreds of billions of dollars to North Carolina's economy.

North Carolina residents in immigrant-led households had $14.2 billion in spending power (after-tax income) in 2014.
Immigrant entrepreneurs in North Carolina generate over a billion dollars in business revenue.

55,867 immigrant business owners accounted for 11.7 percent of all self-employed North Carolina residents in 2015 and generated $1 billionin business income.

In 2015, immigrants accounted for 14.9 percent of business owners in the Raleigh/Carey metropolitan area and 11.8 percent in the Charlotte/Gastonia/Concord metro area.

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North Carolina is home to a small but growing immigrant community. While nearly 8 percent of the state's total population is foreign-born, immigrants make up a significant share of North Carolina's labor force. Over 44 percent of all residents working in farming, fishing, and forestry occupations are immigrants, as well as over 20 percent working in computer and math sciences.

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By Rose Hoban
Map created by Steve Tell & Rose Hoban

In late January, legislators met for the first time to discuss issues surrounding North Carolinian's access to fresh, healthy food.

The House Committee on Food Desert Zones, formed to study the issue during the legislative interim, heard several presentations about the intersection of farmers' markets and the existence of so-called food deserts.

Food deserts are those areas where people have to travel long distances to reach stores where they can buy healthy food at reasonable prices.

According to Ruth Petersen of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, a number of programs - such as the Women, Infants and Children program, which helps pregnant women and mothers of young children get access to healthy food - coordinate to increase access to nutritious food.

But she described a pilot program where families were given a once-a-year $24 voucher for farmers' markets, and many of the vouchers went unused.

"The biggest barrier was transportation," Petersen said. She explained that many issues around food access are intertwined; perhaps a mother could buy milk at a gas station or convenience store, but it might be more expensive than at a supermarket several miles away, using up more of her WIC benefits.

Petersen said that her division has used money from community-transformation grants provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to increase the number of mobile farmers' markets and farm stands, encourage participation in community-supported agriculture and enhance farmers' market access, especially in low-income areas of the state.

"We have been pleased to report that since the inception of this grant, we have been able to start 30 new farmers markets' and enhance 72 farmers' markets," Petersen said. Enhancements included increasing transportation to the markets, providing land-use protections for the market sites and enabling markets to accept electronic transfer benefits, food stamp benefits contained on plastic cards that look and act like debit cards instead of vouchers.

According to Audrey Edmisten of the DHHS Division of Aging and Adult Services, a pilot program to give farmers' market vouchers to food stamp recipients over the age of 55 got more seniors eating more fresh produce.

"Last year for the Seniors Farmers Markets, we received about $83,000. We're in 33 counties. We allocated $21 per participant in that program. It was about 3,800 people, and coupon redemption was 89 percent. That's very high," Edmiston said.

She said the biggest barrier to people using the vouchers was the inability to get to the farmers' markets because of a lack of transportation. In some counties, such as Columbus County, the farmers' market went to the senior center. In other communities, Edmiston said senior centers and social service agencies coordinated transportation, such as car pools, to get seniors to the markets.

And when program officials surveyed the voucher recipients, Edmiston said 81 percent reported they'd eaten more fresh produce because of the program, 77 percent said they'd shop more at farmers' markets if they had more coupons and most of the recipients spent money beyond the vouchers at the markets.

"Get that money right back into local communities," Edmiston said.

The map above notes that the intersection of farmers' markets and food deserts might occur because the farmers' markets are only open for two or three months of the year. Despite the fact that North Carolina ranks sixth in the nation for the number of year-round farmers' markets, many parts of the state have much poorer access to fresh produce during winter months, according to N.C. Department of Commerce statistics.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) FYI:

Households CAN use SNAP benefits to buy:

Foods for the household to eat, such as:

breads and cereals;

fruits and vegetables;

meats, fish and poultry; and

dairy products.

Seeds and plants which produce food for the household to eat.

In some areas, restaurants can be authorized to accept SNAP benefits from qualified homeless, elderly or disabled people in exchange for low-cost meals.

Households CANNOT use SNAP benefits to buy:

Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes or tobacco.

Any nonfood items, such as:

pet foods;

soaps, paper products; and

household supplies.

Vitamins and medicines

Food that will be eaten in the store

Hot foods.

Soft drinks, candy, cookies, snack crackers and ice cream are food items and are therefore eligible items.

Seafood, steak and bakery cakes are also food items and are therefore eligible items.

Several times in the history of SNAP, Congress had considered placing limits on the types of food that could be purchased with program benefits. However, they concluded that designating foods as luxury or non-nutritious would be administratively costly and burdensome.

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Interactive: Food Deserts and Farmers Markets - North Carolina Health News

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By Rose Hoban Map created by Steve Tell & Rose Hoban In late January, legislators met for the first time to discuss issues surrounding North Carolinian's access to fresh, healthy food. The House Committee on Food Desert Zones, formed to study the issue during the legislative interim, heard several presentations about the intersection of farmers' ...

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(AmeriCorps VISTA)

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CLOSE

ASHEVILLE - Anger boiled over at Erwin High on Wednesday morning as parents and students demanded answers after anti-immigrant signs were placed outside a classroom.

The signs were part of a class assignment for students in a civics and economics class. They were placed in a hallway outside a classroom. One read "Illegals Go Home," and another read "America is for Americans."

Teacher Jesse Reeck wiped away tears as she said she was sorry for the signs.

"I want to apologize to everyone who has been hurt by my poor choice to post our class assignment in the hall," she told those who gathered for the early morning meeting. "I am deeply sorry for the pain I have caused to students, parents and community members."

Reeck said the final assignment "was a reflection of what we see today on the news in the presidential campaign and in the world around us."

"I made a serious mistake in posting the assignment in the hall outside the background and the context and the safe environment that we have created inside our classroom," she said.

But those in the audience demanded to know what consequences Reeck would face.

The signs have brought to the surface deeper issues at Erwin High, according to some of those who attended.

"We're not going to let this go at all," Joshua Ramirez, who graduated from Erwin High in 2014, said following the meeting. "We're just all fed up, and this is a time for change, for our change."

Ramirez said he was suspended in his senior year for speaking Spanish in a class.

Some parents at the meeting also said they were forced to wait for interpreters when trying to contact the school about their children.

One woman said she felt, "Because of my accent, I'm not listened to."

Principal Jim Brown said the school has hired office personnel who speak Spanish and Russian to communicate with parents who do not speak English.

The school had planned for Wednesday's meeting to last about 30 minutes before the start of class, but parents, students and community members refused to leave the auditorium until they had a chance to speak.

The meeting continued well past 9 a.m. The school brought in counselors to talk to students in the cafeteria following the meeting.

Former Erwin student Michelle Montero, who attended the meeting, said she was surprised to hear the signs had been placed in the hallway.

"It just made me super sad because I don't know one teacher that would allow it, and I don't know why it happened, but it did," she said.

Montero said she sees Wednesday's meeting as "a beginning."

The meeting also drew Bianca Figueroa, of Hendersonville.

"There are so many racist people out there, and if you make it OK at a public school, you are going to make it OK everywhere," Figueroa said. "So, honestly, what most of these people (attending the meeting) want is just to stop it here."

Erwin has a diverse student population, with more than 25 countries represented in the school's student body.

Reeck, who is biracial, said the "diversity and inclusiveness" at Erwin drew her to the school.

"I am thankful to be a part of such a beautifully diverse community," she said.

About 30 signs from the homework assignment were placed on the walls outside the classroom for a few hours Monday.

Photos of four of the signs were posted on social media, and that's how many found out about the issue.

Some students reacted Tuesday, gathering during lunch and chanting the word "Mexico."

Brown said he wants to put together a focus group made up of some of those attending Wednesday's meeting.

He also wants to set a long range plan that involves another meeting "where we could have a discussion with members of the community to report to them the progress that we're making," he said.

Buncombe County Schools board chair Ann Franklin said the school system is developing plans to address the issues, but she believes one thing that is needed is more training for staff members.

"I feel sure that's something we will put in place," she said.

Read or Share this story: http://avlne.ws/1UrN8Mv

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Buncombe parents demand answers over anti-immigrant signs

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CLOSE ASHEVILLE - Anger boiled over at Erwin High on Wednesday morning as parents and students demanded answers after anti-immigrant signs were placed outside a classroom. The signs were part of a class assignment for students in a civics and economics class. They were placed in a hallway outside a classroom.

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Traffic checkpoints near schools get closer look amid rising immigrant fear

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Traffic checkpoints near schools get closer look amid rising immigrant fear

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It makes parents not want to attend any after-school programming. (AmeriCorps VISTA)

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A sheriff's checkpoint near a school that raised concern last week in Durham County might not have happened in neighboring Orange or Wake counties, whose sheriff's offices say they avoid checkpoints near schools.

In Orange County, the sheriff's office and the Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough police departments agreed after hearing concerns last summer not to hold checkpoints near schools when parents are dropping off and picking up children, sheriff's Chief Deputy Jamie Sykes said.

In Wake County, Sheriff Donnie Harrison would not rule out holding a checkpoint near a school, but on Friday said, "I don't know of one since I've been here." Harrison has been sheriff since 2002.

The late-afternoon Feb. 20 checkpoint at Hamlin Road and Industrial Drive in Durham County became an issue after Brian Callaway, the coordinator of energy and sustainability at Durham Public Schools, sent an email about it to the sheriff, police chief, school board members and media outlets. The nearby School for Creative Studies has 22 percent Hispanic enrollment.

"Considering that Immigration and Customs Enforcement have deported individuals for infractions as minor as license violations, this means that your officers' actions are directly threatening the livelihoods of people who are residing and working in our community," Callaway wrote. "I reckon that I am not alone when I say that I do not want my tax dollars being utilized locally in a method that directly threatens peaceful members of our own community."

In an interview, Durham school board Chairman Mike Lee said he was also troubled by the checkpoint near a school.

"In today's political climate, it's kind of scary to have that sort of thing when parents are picking up their children," Lee said. "We just can't support that."

Lee said he understands the Sheriff's Office isn't setting up roadblocks to capture people in the country illegally. But he said such checkpoints can lead to minor traffic offenses, then serious consequences.

"It does concern me that illegal immigrants may feel unsafe around our schools," he said. "We support all of our students, no matter what their background."

On Wednesday, Tamara Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Durham County Sheriff's Office, said the department held the checkpoint in response to speeding complaints. A September 2016 traffic enforcement action near Jordan High School also followed complaints about speeding during hours of peak pedestrian traffic, she said.

By Friday afternoon, Gibbs said the department was taking a closer look at the practice.

"This agency is definitely having discussions about the fear that is in this community," she said, "and how we can better help people feel safe ... feel they are not being hunted."

About checkpoints

Motor vehicle checkpoints are controversial, Jeffrey Welty, an expert in criminal law and procedure, wrote in a 2010 UNC School of Government bulletin.

In North Carolina, state law allows checkpoints to detect impaired driving and other violations of motor-vehicle laws. Motor-vehicle checkpoints may not be used for general crime control, he wrote.

At least one media outlet last week reported that a sheriff's deputy had allegedly told people the Feb. 20 checkpoint was in response to break-ins in the area.

But Gibbs said the deputy told her that's not what he said.

"He was very firm with me," Gibbs said. "The motivation for that checkpoint was not that, because that would be illegal. Traffic enforcement is the law."

State law requires checkpoints be placed randomly or where "statistically indicated," which Welty interpreted as meaning the law enforcement agency has reason to believe an area has "more problems than other locations 'with unlicensed or unregistered drivers,' impaired drivers or motor-vehicle violations in general."

Raul Pinto, an immigration attorney at the N.C. Justice Center, said that has not kept some law enforcement agencies in North Carolina from setting up motor-vehicle checkpoints in majority-minority communities, like outside an apartment complex or mobile home park.

"I don't think any court has defined what 'statistically indicated' means," he said.

License and registration

What happens when a driver can't produce his or her license and registration?

According to the six Durham and Orange law enforcement agencies contacted, the process works the same way.

Officers have some discretion. People who can't comply typically get a verbal or written warning - say, if the officer believes they have a license, just not with them - or a citation (ticket).

"By law the deputy can bring the driver without a license before a magistrate, but the agency tries to avoid that by asking for other forms of ID," Gibbs said.

One form being used in Orange and Durham counties is the Faith ID, an unofficial alternative ID promoted by Durham-based El Centro Hispano (The Hispanic Center) after the state stopped accepting the matricula consular, a Mexican ID card that the FBI said was subject to fraud and forgery.

El Centro has enrolled about 1,800 people in the Faith ID program, which requires proof of identification and address, said director Pilar Rocha-Goldberg.

Even when drivers can't comply, checkpoints rarely lead to immigration problems.

Some departments, such as Chapel Hill, added that their officers are prohibited from questioning people about their immigration status during a routine encounter such as a traffic stop and from detaining people for the purpose of verifying their immigration status.

The exception to notifying immigration officials stemming from a checkpoint occurs when an officer arrests someone upon evidence of a crime or on a warrant.

Once a person is booked in the jail in Durham County, for example, Gibbs said, the person is fingerprinted and a set of prints is sent to the State Bureau of Investigation.

If the person is wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the system flags the fingerprints and a technician sends a notice of arrest to ICE, which can ask the jail to detain the person.

If no detainer is issued, the person may leave the jail on bond or upon a magistrate or judge's order.

If a detainer is received, the person will remain in jail until his or her case is adjudicated, Gibbs said.

Once all charges are adjudicated, the arresting agency notifies ICE, which has a 48 hour deadline in which to take custody, after which the detainee is released, she said.

Community meeting

On Sunday, March 5, Durham CAN (Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods) and the N.C. Congress of Latino Organizations will hold a public meeting with the sheriff, police and elected leaders to talk about "the way authorities will interact with immigrants in the current environment," the groups said in a news release.

The meeting runs from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 810 W. Chapel Hill St. in Durham.

Rocha-Goldberg, meanwhile, said El Centro Hispano plans to form task forces soon to focus on law enforcement issues affecting immigrants in Durham and Orange counties.

The group also hopes to talk with the Durham County Sheriff's Office about not holding future checkpoint near schools, as it did with Orange County's law-enforcement agencies.

"They found they can do their jobs without the checkpoints," she said. "They were getting the opposite effect they were looking for. People were scared."

Staff writer Gregory Childress contributed to this story.

The Durham County Sheriff's Office held four checkpoints Feb. 20.

In addition to the Hamlin Road/Industrial Drive checkpoint, they were at Glover Road/Angier Avenue, Glover Road/Clinton Road and U.S. 70/Marley Drive.

The office issued a total of

▪ 5 verbal warnings

▪ 9 written warnings

▪ 8 citations

Those warned or cited broke down this way:

▪ 3 Hispanic males

▪ 3 Hispanic females

▪ 5 black males

▪ 6 black females

▪ 3 white males

▪ 2 white females

Source: Durham County Sheriff's Office

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Traffic checkpoints near schools get closer look amid rising immigrant fear | News & Observer

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A sheriff's checkpoint near a school that raised concern last week in Durham County might not have happened in neighboring Orange or Wake counties, whose sheriff's offices say they avoid checkpoints near schools.

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There is a significant change that is impacting the people that have been in Durham most of their lives; pushing people out and making things more inaccessible. (AmeriCorps VISTA)

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About this project: The Herald-Sun examines how Durham is changing as talk turns from revitalization to gentrification. In stories, commentary and a new Facebook group, "The Story of My Street: Gentrification in Durham," learn how rising home prices are changing neighborhoods, and how you can be part of the conversation.
DURHAM - Vanessa Safie has been living in an apartment in southwest Durham for five months since she moved here from her hometown of Miami.

Now she wants to buy a house where she, her husband and 3-year-old son can live permanently - something that scores of newcomers to the Bull City have done in recent years. Safie said she was able to persuade her husband to move to the Triangle because of the growing technology industry here.

But that's created a dilemma, she said.

She realizes demand from people like her is pushing home prices higher across Durham. She worries that buying a house might contribute to rising property values, causing a spike in her future neighbors' rents or corresponding tax bills.

"I am hyper-aware that moving near downtown into a recently renovated, adorable home probably means I'd be [replacing] someone else living there and they were probably a renter," Safie, 34, said.

So, she is purposely removing some neighborhoods around downtown from consideration.

"I know how displacement worked from Miami and how much of a burden it is that [former residents] have to move far away from transit and the job centers," Safie said. "I want to avoid that."

What is gentrification?

Ten years ago, the buzz word to describe downtown Durham was "revitalization." The city went after new business, new restaurants, new entertainment venues and new people, spending millions on parking and infrastructure to attract private investment.

It worked. The Bull City is now on national lists of places to live and visit. But as people keep coming, now at 20 new residents a day, city leaders say Durham is struggling to keep up with housing supply. And neighborhoods are changing.

The buzz word has changed too.

"Gentrification in Durham is a huge issue," N.C. Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat and former judge, said at a recent town hall.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines gentrification as the "process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents."

Camryn Smith moved into Old East Durham in 2010. She wanted to live in a mostly African-American neighborhood near downtown. Old East Durham is next to another historically African-American neighborhood, Albright, as well as Cleveland-Holloway, one of the neighborhoods that has seen the steepest increase in property values.

You can see the changes across the city:

According to methodology used by trade magazine Governing Magazine, which we applied to Durham, five of Durham County's 60 census tracts have gentrified. All around downtown, they include parts of Cleveland-Holloway, West End, Walltown and Old West Durham. Another 13 tracts have gentrification potential.

The racial makeup of neighborhoods has also fluctuated. Four of the five census tracts that have had the greatest increase in white residents are around downtown Durham since 2010. The tract that includes part of the Northgate Park neighborhood has had a 27 percentage point increase in white residents.

Some census tracts' median income levels have also surged in recent years. Since 2010, six census tracts have seen their median household income levels rise by more than 40 percent. The county's median household income increased 8.4 percent over the same period.

The same is true of median house value, where five census tracts saw median house value rise by more than 25 percent from 2010-2016. The county's median home value only increased 6.1 percent over the same period.

Smith has become an activist and community organizer. In her neighborhood, she sees African-American and Latino working-class families moving out and young, white, upper-middle-class couples moving in.

"Who can compete with market forces? It's just huge, and it's unfair, but that's the reality we're facing," she said.

Join the conversation

As The Herald-Sun looks at how Durham is changing, we have started a Facebook group called "Story of My Street: Gentrification in Durham." In three weeks, nearly 300 people joined, adding their thoughts and perspectives. Click here to join or search for the group by name on Facebook.

Here's what some people in the group are saying:

Joseph Margolis, who grew up in Durham, describes gentrification generally as "the innocuous-seeming revitalization, improvement of a neighborhood or district. But in practice it is a violent ... tool that feigns color blindness and 'the invisible hand' as it removes and excludes poor people, mainly of color, from their community spaces they'd previously held for generations."

Michael De Los Santos, who lives in Durham, describes gentrification as "changing a development and/or community to meet the needs and desires of the more affluent. Achieved through pricing out people who currently reside or shop in the area."

Philip Azar, who lives in Durham, posted that "especially in the context of Durham, I think race is integral to gentrification and should be reflected in the definition we use."

There are 311,000 people who live in Durham County, according to the U.S. Census. That's a 15 percent population increase from 2010 to 2017. In 2016, Durham County's population was 42 percent white, 38 African-American, 13 percent Latino, 5 percent Asian, and fewer than 4 percent multiple races, American Indian and Pacific Islander.

Is gentrification inevitable?

Gentrification is "something on our mind all the time," said Durham City Manager Tom Bonfield. "We hear about it all the time." He's seen it in other cities and said it is a consequence of being a place of success.

Nowhere has Durham "succeeded" more than downtown, which has undergone a fast-paced evolution from empty factory buildings to a skyline dotted with cranes.

As construction began on the 27-story One City Center, which will become downtown's tallest building, so too did a parody Twitter account calling it "Pit of Gentrification." The skyscraper is being built on what was once an empty lot next to a burned-out building.

So can a place be successful but not have gentrification?

"No one's figured it out yet," Bonfield said.

When he became city manager 10 years ago, Durham had 1,000 boarded-up houses, Bonfield said. Now there are fewer than 25.

He doesn't see downtown as being gentrified because when he came to Durham in 2008, there wasn't significant investment in all of downtown.

If gentrification is direct displacement, there were few residents and businesses to displace.

Over the 16 years of Mayor Bill Bell's time in office, more than $1.7 billion in public and private money was injected into downtown, according to Downtown Durham Inc. He left office in late 2017.

Bonfield acknowledges the recent success of downtown has contributed to gentrification in neighborhoods.

Urban planner John Killeen of DataWorks NC, which tracks Durham demographic data, and others say decades of disinvestment, both business and residential, set the stage for gentrification. In Durham it dates back to at least the urban renewal era of the 1960s, which led to the Durham Freeway, then called the East-West Expressway, being built through the historic African-American area of Hayti. Houses and churches were demolished. Streets now dead end at the freeway.

Tia Wilson of Bull City 150, a social-justice project based at Duke University, said the African-American community never rebounded after urban renewal. "It's been a series of unmitigated losses," she said. "The community has not had an opportunity to rebuild wealth."

What has rebounded, especially in recent years, however, is Durham's housing market, most dramatically in the neighborhoods around downtown.

A hot housing market

Safie, the Miami transplant, knows few people like her would voluntarily remove desirable neighborhoods from consideration because of fears of causing gentrification.

"Someone told me the other day, 'It's either you or the five people behind you who are putting the offer in,'" she said.

In fact, Safie said she and her husband did recently lose a bidding war with five contenders vying for a home in south Durham.

"If I were to end up in a 'cool neighborhood' I would want to be the good gentrifier," she added. "If that is even possible."

Local home builders say they are struggling to keep up with demand. New home starts in the region still haven't returned to the pre-recession levels of 2007, a fact that could be said for most places across the country, as builders struggle with increased land costs and a labor shortage.

"I have been 25 years in the business, and I have never seen such demand (for new homes)," said Gian Hasbrock, president of the Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange and Chatham Counties, earlier this year.

In Durham, it would take just a little over a month for the current supply of houses on the market to sell, given the current rate of sales, according to Triangle Multiple Listing Services.

Nationally, it would take more than five times longer to bring existing inventory to zero.

The lack of new housing coupled with the demand from new residents is fueling home values. The median sale price in Durham in January was $233,000 - 16.3 percent higher than the previous year. Compare that to the 10.9 percent increase - to a $250,000 median price - for the Triangle region, according to data compiled by Triangle MLS.

The increase in housing values is the result of regional job gains, said Jacob Rogers, CEO of Triangle Community Coalition. "What [people] don't understand is that developers are not creating demand, they are just responding to it," he said.

Since February 2010, the number of jobs in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro area has grown by 16.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That has outpaced the country as a whole, which grew by 14.2 percent over the same period. The Raleigh-Cary metro area added jobs at an even faster rate during that time period, growing at a rate of 27.4 percent since February 2010.

No one knows that better than real estate investors, who have increasingly targeted the neighborhoods that surround downtown.

Targeting downtown neighborhoods

House flippers flocked to Durham last year where they could find some of the best value in the Triangle, according to ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data company. The ZIP codes around downtown Durham offered the highest returns on investment for house flippers of any area in the Triangle.

"There is not a lot of - relative to historic norms - new homes, so flippers can come in and provide a product that is like a new home," said Daren Blomquist, ATTOM Data Solutions senior vice president of communications. "It's the next best thing if someone wants a new home, they can get a home that is flipped."

Eric Hedden, who runs the Durham Building Co., is one of the many builders following demand. Durham Building Co., which mainly works in the Old East Durham neighborhood, started working in Durham in 2013, building nine homes, a number he expected to grow to 30 by the end of 2017.

"It's definitely changed [here] more and more re-modelers and home builders are coming in," Hedden said in an interview last year. "More people want to live in the urban parts of Durham, so that demand is pretty great."

But even for builders land is getting expensive now.

"Three years ago what could cost $15,000 to buy a lot to build a house on is now $100,000," Hedden said. "Some of these little pocket areas - Cleveland-Holloway and even Southside - now it is getting to a point that is too high."

Durham Mayor Steve Schewel talked about gentrification in his first "State of the City" address in February.

"People want to move here because we have a wonderful quality of life, something we should all be very proud of," Schewel said.

"What's more, Durham is unusual because we are among the top 10 cities in the nation in attracting whites, blacks and Asians alike. That's an incredible tribute to our embrace of all people. But all that in-migration is driving gentrification with tremendous speed and power. I want to say clearly that we cannot stop those market forces," he said.

A strong affordable housing program for low-income people will make a difference in fighting gentrification, the mayor said. The city has a dedicated housing fund, paid for with two cents per $100 of assessed value on the property tax, that supports affordable housing projects.

It's not just the city grappling with these questions. Durham Public Schools is considering building affordable housing for its teachers and Downtown Durham Inc., which manages the downtown business district, has made maintaining diversity in downtown one of its goals.

The cost of gentrification

To be affordable, experts say, housing should not exceed 30 percent of a household's gross income. In Durham in 2012, there were 19,500 low-income renters paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing. That's 42 percent of all Durham renters.

That same year, 7,800 low-income owners in Durham were paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing. That's 15 percent of all owners.

Peter Gilbert of Legal Aid of North Carolina is part of Durham's pilot eviction diversion program.

"If we're concerned about gentrification and affordable housing, it's cheaper and better policy to keep people in place rather than rehouse them after evictions," he told city and county leaders recently. "Rents go up; that's when gentrification happens."

Should local and state government be doing more? Less? What about nonprofits and businesses? Employers? In coming months, we'll look at these and other questions.

Smith, the Old East Durham resident, is worried about how gentrification is changing Durham.

"This city was created by, for the benefit and vibrance of, black people," Smith said. "People are coming in and creating a narrative that whitewashes it, and that's a huge arrogance to me. It's white arrogance, white supremacy."

Smith said that if the area around N.C. Central University, a historically black university, becomes white, "that's it."

As for Safie, the home searcher, the competitiveness of finding a home inside of Durham has made her question whether she will be able to end up in Durham at all.

"Our current search is really broad," she said. "We've seen houses in north Durham and south Durham, but there is a Wake Forest open house that I am begrudgingly going to."

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Gentrification in the South, Durham as an example of changing neighborhoods | The Herald Sun

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About this project: The Herald-Sun examines how Durham is changing as talk turns from revitalization to gentrification. In stories, commentary and a new Facebook group, "The Story of My Street: Gentrification in Durham," learn how rising home prices are changing neighborhoods, and how you can be part of the conversation.

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There is an Affordable Housing Crisis in Durham, NC. Due to increases in development, and gentrification, housing rates are skyrocketing leaving many Durham natives at risk of losing their homes. (AmeriCorps VISTA)

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Durham, North Carolina in an affordable housing crisis, City Council members say | The Herald Sun

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Thursday, March 22, 2018: Three Durham City Council members elected in November tell Durham Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods how they'll handle the city's 'affordable housing crisis.'

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(AmeriCorps VISTA)

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​Statistics about Hispanics-the largest and fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the United States-continue to paint a troubling picture in higher education.

The question of whether the education levels of successive generations of Americans are continually progressing gains new relevance in light of the Obama administration's goal of regaining the world leadership in postsecondary education attainment. But the United States may not be gaining any ground in this effort. The latest ACE Minority Status Report shows that post-baby boom generations are no better educated than their parents and grandparents, with young Hispanics falling behind the already low educational attainment level of older Hispanics.

The 47 million Hispanics living in the United States are disproportionately foreign-born, representing the nation's largest immigrant group. Immigrants are especially concentrated among the adult Hispanic population, as 58 percent of those aged 25 to 64 are foreign-born.

Immigrants from a non-Hispanic origin typically have high levels of education. Immigrant adults aged 25 to 64 who are not Hispanic have a much higher rate of holding a postsecondary degree than their U.S.-born peers (see chart). However, Hispanic immigrants are nearly half as likely as U.S.-born Hispanics to hold a postsecondary degree.

Adolescent and adult Hispanic immigrants also are unlikely to be served by traditional educational programs and services because of unique educational barriers they face, as highlighted below:

Age at immigration: The majority of Hispanic immigrants arrive in the United States at age 9 or older. Immigrants who receive all or most of their education in American schools perform comparably with those born in the United States. But immigrant youth of Mexican origin who arrived later in their lives are four times as likely to drop out of school as those who arrived early in childhood (33 percent vs. 8 percent).

Schooling in country of origin: Immigrants who had schooling problems in their native country are likely either to never enroll or to drop out of school after arrival. Among Hispanic young adults aged 18 to 24 who do not hold a high school credential, 46 percent have never attended a school since arriving in the United States. The likelihood of not being in school while in the United States is shaped by schooling history prior to immigration.

Language barrier: Among Hispanic immigrant households, only 4 percent use English as the primary at-home language, compared with 39 percent for U.S.-born Hispanics. Seven of every 10 Hispanic immigrant adults who have less than a high school education do not speak English well, if at all.

Pressing economic needs: A high labor participation rate among Hispanic immigrants and employment concentrated in low-skill, low-wage jobs make it more difficult to bear the high opportunity costs associated with pursuing further education, particularly in traditional settings.

Legal status: All aforementioned barriers can be even more challenging for unauthorized immigrants, placing them at a particular disadvantage. Unauthorized immigrants have lower education levels and are more likely to work full time in low-skill, low-paying jobs than legal immigrants. As of 2008, about 12 million people in the United States were estimated to be without legal status, making up about 30 percent of the immigrant population.

National polling results consistently show that Hispanics have higher aspirations for postsecondary education than the population in general. But their aspirations have not been matched by results. Recognizing these barriers and understanding their effects are important initial steps in raising the educational attainment of the Hispanic immigrant population specifically, and the Hispanic population in general.

For more information about or to purchase Minorities in Higher Education 2010: Twenty-Fourth Status Report, published with support from the GE Foundation, visit store.acenet.edu.

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By the Numbers: ACE Report Identifies Educational Barriers for Hispanics

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​Statistics about Hispanics-the largest and fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the United States-continue to paint a troubling picture in higher education. The question of whether the education levels of successive generations of Americans are continually progressing gains new relevance in light of the Obama administration's goal of regaining the world leadership in postsecondary education attainment.

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(Shannon)

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The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. The increase in the jail and prison population from less than 200,000 in 1972 to 2.2 million today has led to unprecedented prison overcrowding and put tremendous strain on state budgets. The United States has 5 percent of the world's population but nearly 25 percent of its prisoners.

In the 1990s, as lawmakers campaigned to "get tough on crime," America built a new prison every two weeks and still could not meet the demand for prison beds. Violent crime has fallen by more than 51 percent since 1991, and property crime has decreased by more than 43 percent. Although the crime rate has dropped steadily to about half of what it was in 1991, spending on jails and prisons reached nearly $81 billion in FY 2010. Today, nearly seven million people in this country are incarcerated, on probation, or on parole.

The politics of fear and anger fueled "tough on crime" policies-including mandatory minimum sentences, extraordinarily harsh and racially disparate penalties for even minor drug offenses, and the explosion in life sentences without parole-that led to the unprecedented and unparalleled incarceration rate in America today. Private prisons operated by for-profit corporations multiplied from five in 1998 to a hundred in 2008, and profits have increased more than 500 percent in the last 20 years, creating perverse incentives and hindering efforts to reform sentencing laws, emphasize rehabilitation goals, and reduce the prison population.

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The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. The increase in the jail and prison population from less than 200,000 in 1972 to 2.2 million today has led to unprecedented prison overcrowding and put tremendous strain on state budgets.

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(Shannon)

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Description: This 75-foot-tall monument to fallen Confederate soldiers is located on the State Capitol grounds. At the top of the column is a statue depicting a Confederate artillery soldier holding a gun. Near the bottom of the column are two statues, one representing the Confederate infantry and the other a Confederate cavalryman. Two 32 pounder naval cannons stand on each side of the monument.
In 1892, state legislators endorsed the goal of building a Confederate monument in Capital Square. Secretary of State Octavius Coke held a meeting of members of both the Ladies Memorial Association and the North Carolina Monumental Association in June 1892 to launch a campaign to erect a memorial to deceased Confederate soldiers from North Carolina.
Images: Contemporary view | Rear view | Front inscription | Back inscription | Cavalryman | Infantryman | Right cannon | Left cannon | Plaques on naval cannons

Inscription: Front, on shaft: TO OUR / CONFEDERATE / DEAD

Rear, on base: FIRST AT / BETHEL / LAST AT / APPOMATTOX / 1861. 1865.
Plaques on naval cannons: 32 Pounder Naval Cannon / TAKEN IN JUNE 1861 WHEN THE NAVY YARD AT / NORFOLK WAS ABANDONED BY THE UNITED STATES / BANDED AND CONVERTED / AT RICHMOND INTO A 6 INCH RIFLE / MOUNTED AT FORT CASWELL, NORTH CAROLINA / DISMOUNTED BY EXPLODING MAGAZINES / WHEN THE CONFEDERATES EVACUATED THAT FORT / IN JANUARY 1865 / PRESENTED BY US WAR DEPARTMENT / 1902

Controversies: When the monument was first proposed, Populist and Republican legislators objected to any public funding of the monument on the grounds that public education, rather than sectional pride, was a pressing need. In addition, monument opponents protested against the special tax fund that would be used to subsidize the monument's costs.
During the 2000s, some critics questioned whether it was appropriate to continue to commemorate, on capitol grounds, white soldiers who fought to establish a slaveholders' republic.

11 July 2014 | Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina

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Confederate Monument, State Capitol, Raleigh

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Description: This 75-foot-tall monument to fallen Confederate soldiers is located on the State Capitol grounds. At the top of the column is a statue depicting a Confederate artillery soldier holding a gun. Near the bottom of the column are two statues, one representing the Confederate infantry and the other a Confederate cavalryman.

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SNAP doesn't include cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, deodorant, soap, hair products.

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SNAP doesn't include cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, deodorant, soap, hair products.

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Particularly stressful for middle school and high school students. (Shannon)

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Food stamps are a matter of public debate after the Trump administration unveiled its plan to turn the antipoverty program into a "Blue Apron-type program." But critics say the food-box plan is a distraction from a bigger threat facing the program: the administration's proposal to slash its spending by 30 percent.

President Donald Trump's budget proposes cutting $213 billion over a decade from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a move that the progressively minded Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) calls "ill-advised and harmful."

Much of the current debate is focused on Mr. Trump's "Blue Apron" idea, which critics pointed out wouldn't be anything like the subscription gourmet meal service. For one, the boxes would rely on canned foods and long-life milk instead of fresh fruits and vegetables, a far cry from the fresh food delivered by Blue Apron. And recipients of Mr. Trump's "America's Harvest Box" wouldn't get to pick what they wanted to eat, unlike Blue Apron customers.

However, critics say the hullabaloo is overshadowing the bigger problems facing SNAP, including the Trump proposal to slash funding and cut eligibility, which would bump millions of low-income senior citizens, disabled Americans and working families off the program. Four million families would lose their food stamps from the eligibility requirements alone, the CBPP estimates.

Conservatives often criticize food stamps because the program allows recipients to buy soda, candy, desserts and other unhealthy foods, an issue that was hinted at by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, who said the food box would ensure "they're getting nutritious food." Part of the criticism was fueled by a 2016 report finding that households receiving food stamps use 20 cents of every dollar to buy sodas and sweets, which the conservative American Enterprise Institute called "alarming."

To critics, that raises questions about SNAP's efficiency. Yet academics and policymakers have judged food stamps as one of the nation's most effective antipoverty programs.

About 44 million Americans receive food stamps, or almost one in seven people. The highest use is in Washington, D.C., and Mississippi, where 22 percent and 21 percent of the population receive the benefit, respectively.
Here are seven things you might not know about SNAP:
It doesn't cover all grocery costs. The name Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program sums up its mission: to provide supplemental funding for grocery purchases. Early on, food stamps were limited to one-third of a household's grocery spending. Today, a majority of recipients use their own money as well as food stamps to keep their larder stocked.

Food stamps create economic growth. An overlooked aspect of the program is how it supports businesses and economic growth. In fact, Moody's Analytics estimated that every $1 of food stamp spending creates about $1.70 in economic activity, more than the benefit from tax cuts or boosting defense spending. In fact, Walmart ( WMT) could be one of the biggest losers if the program is cut because it accepts food-stamp payments at its grocery stores.

Mr. Trump would cut a program that's already shrinking. Food stamp spending has dropped by $12 billion since 2013, when it reached $79 billion in annual benefits, its largest year ever. The program's rolls swelled following the Great Recession, but enrollment and spending have declined each of the last four years.

Food stamps can't buy hot foods or household supplies. Food stamp recipients won't have any luck with buying that rotisserie chicken because the program prohibits spending on hot foods as well as nonfood items like cleaning supplies, vitamin supplements, cigarettes or alcoholic beverages.

Soda consumption isn't any higher with food stamps. One criticism of the "Blue Apron" idea is that it effectively dictates what poor Americans can eat, blocking them from buying soda or sweets. But the U.S. Agriculture Department found that food-stamp recipients spent nearly the same amount on soda as households that don't receive the benefits.

Two-thirds of food stamp recipients are elderly, disabled, or children. With 44 percent of recipients under 18 years old, children make up one of the biggest demographics. Another 12 percent are seniors, while 9 percent are disabled. The Trump administration's budgets would " affect every type of SNAP participant," including these vulnerable groups, according to Stacy Dean, the vice president for food assistance policy at the CBPP.

The fraud rate is low. Despite concerns about misuse of food stamps, the program has "one of the lowest fraud rates for federal programs," according to the Agriculture Department. Only about 1 percent of benefits are "trafficked," or when recipients illegally sell the benefits for cash. The agency said it continues to crack down on existing fraud.

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7 things you might not know about food stamps

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Food stamps are a matter of public debate after the Trump administration unveiled its plan to turn the antipoverty program into a "Blue Apron-type program." But critics say the food-box plan is a distraction from a bigger threat facing the program: the administration's proposal to slash its spending by 30 percent.

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(Shannon)

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WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - Wilmington is a well-known tourist destination, but people may not know it is also a destination for human traffickers.

Community members gathered at The Foxes Boxes restaurant Wednesday to learn about human trafficking in the Port City. Cary Ramsey, the community partnership coordinator at A Safe Place, has witnessed human trafficking in many forms.

"When I was in Ethiopia, I worked right in the middle of trafficking," Ramsey said. "The girls there were being sent to the Middle East and the root causes were very different.

Ramsey says young women are the main targets of human trafficking in Wilmington, but young men are also involved.

"When they think of trafficking, they think of a girl in handcuffs somewhere," Ramsey said. "While human trafficking is very prevalent here, it's just right below the surface. We have issues of sexual trauma. We have issues of domestic violence and we have issues of homelessness and that's often what keeps them kind of stuck in the life."

She explained trafficking in Wilmington does not look like something out of the movie Taken.

"I think a lot of times people have a stereotype for what they think a trafficker is," Ramsey said. "They think they look a certain way. It's a male. He's a certain type of socio-demographic, but that's not true at all. What I've realized is there's also aunts. It's foster parents. It's the neighbor next door."

Certain signs may indicate someone is involved in a trafficking situation. A Safe Place has a 24-hour hotline (888-554-2501) available for tips or support.

"If you encounter somebody, for example, that doesn't necessarily know where they are, what city they're in, where are you staying," Ramsey said. "They may not have a location or identification. They may not be able to be left alone. There's someone always hanging around, right around the corner, that sort of thing."

"You may have two girls that are out in public and everything seems fine, but it's actually that one girl is under the control of the other one," she said.

"It's not at night," she said. "If you think about it, most of the clients are businessmen who are on their way to work in the morning and they stop and they get what they need to get before they need to go in."

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Wilmington a destination for human traffickers

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WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - Wilmington is a well-known tourist destination, but people may not know it is also a destination for human traffickers. Community members gathered at The Foxes Boxes restaurant Wednesday to learn about human trafficking in the Port City.

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(Shannon)

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Suicide: Rates are climbing everywhere, including North Carolina | News & Observer

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Beyond Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade, suicide is on the rise everywhere. But it's up at a slower rate in North Carolina than in the rest of the country.

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Coal ash, hog farms, GenX, radioactive wells, carcinogens.  (Jessie)

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The state's GOP leadership tried to make the state more business-friendly. Now residents are saying their water isn't safe to drink.

The Trump administration has not been shy about its skepticism of programs designed to protect the environment. Donald Trump has said that environmental regulations are "out of control," he has proposed slashing the budget and staffing levels at the Environmental Protection Agency, and he has appointed as head of that agency Scott Pruitt, who has spent a career repeatedly backing business over regulators. Last month, Trump signed an executive order aimed at reversing a signature Obama-era climate policy, the Clean Power Plan.

Listen to the audio version of this article: Feature stories, read aloud: download the Audm app for your iPhone.

In North Carolina, the state government has taken a similar approach to its own environmental regulatory agency over the past few years. I went there to see how the state's regulatory rollback is playing out so far.

My trip brought me to the home of Amy Brown, who lives with her husband and two sons in a small single-story home in Belmont, not far from Charlotte. Inside, bottled water is stacked in corners and against the walls. Her boys, ages 11 and 4, use the bottled water to brush their teeth. Brown uses it to make them oatmeal in the morning and spaghetti at night. That's because the Browns' well water contains elevated levels of a carcinogen called hexavalent chromium and another potentially dangerous compound called vanadium. In 2015, the state advised the family and their neighbors not to drink the water or cook with it.

The Browns live a few hundred yards from a coal-fired power plant, the Allen Steam Station, and it is this plant, according to some environmentalists and homeowners, that is polluting the local well water. Duke Energy, which runs that power plant and 13 others in the state (seven of which, including Allen, still burn coal), disagrees.

Burning coal creates a residual material called coal ash, which some environmentalists say contains dangerous levels of heavy metals; Duke Energy contests the allegation that coal ash is hazardous. Duke stores its coal ash in pits near plants where it still burns coal and those where it formerly burned it. At many Duke Energy sites, including Allen, the coal ash is mixed with water and stored in unlined pits-essentially ponds-where, environmentalists say, the mixture seeps into the groundwater. Area wells then act like straws, they say, pulling up the polluted water into households like the Browns'.
"It's like our state is deaf, and the only voice they can hear is Duke Energy."
But whether it's the coal ash that is polluting the drinking water is a matter of dispute. Duke Energy says that coal ash is not what's responsible for the contamination, and it points to an October 2016 study from Duke University that concluded that, though the coal-ash ponds are potentially polluting groundwater near the pits, the hexavalent chromium that is contaminating the well water is naturally occurring.

North Carolina regulators have embraced Duke Energy's version of events, environmentalists say, and have slowed down efforts to get the company to address pollution problems near coal-ash sites. Cleanup was further set back, they say, after Republicans gained control of the North Carolina legislature in 2010 and then practically came to a halt when Pat McCrory, who had worked for Duke Energy for 28 years, won the race for governor in 2012.

In an effort to become more business-friendly, the state favored industry over environmental organizations, critics say. The McCrory administration was "very quick to cater to whatever special interest would come forward with an idea to roll something back; they were enthusiastic about it," Chuck McGrady, a moderate Republican state legislator who favored environmental protections, told me.

Over the last five years, the state's GOP leadership consistently cut resources from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (renamed the Department of Environmental Quality in 2015). Former department staffers said the cuts made it extremely difficult to carry out their jobs. And however the drinking water was contaminated, the state confused residents like Brown about its safety, playing down the health risks and pushing back against directives from health officials that instructed families not to drink their tap water.

Even after a massive coal-ash spill from a Duke Energy plant polluted 70 miles of the Dan River in North Carolina in 2014, the state was wishy-washy on coal-ash cleanup, ultimately passing a bill that allowed the company to leave many of its coal-ash sites in place as long as the company made repairs to the basins and provided a supply of clean drinking water to households located near coal-ash sites.

And so, Brown and her family still live on bottled water, she still hustles her husband and children through the shower, and they never take baths. The Browns' in-ground pool, which has elevated levels of arsenic, among other chemicals, is strictly off-limits. "It's like our state is deaf, and the only voice they can hear is Duke Energy," Brown told me.

one of Governor McCrory's top priorities when he was elected in 2012 was to make the state more business-friendly. "The reason I'm running for governor is to represent business," he said while campaigning. His win signaled the end of two decades of Democratic control of the North Carolina governor's office, and McCrory immediately began pushing the state to weaken regulations and become more favorable to companies; he also lowered taxes and cut staffing levels at various state agencies, including those tasked with protecting the environment.

McCrory appointed as the head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) a man named John Skvarla, a climate-change doubter who took the business-friendly objective very seriously. One of Skvarla's first actions was to rewrite the mission statement of DENR so that a cost-benefit analysis was applied to environmental matters whenever possible. The new mission statement also emphasized that personnel should be a "resource of invaluable public assistance" rather than a "bureaucratic obstacle of resistance." Links and documents about climate change also disappeared from DENR's website once Skvarla took over.

Beginning in 2013, DENR staffers were instructed to focus on customer service, the "customers" being permit-seeking businesses, said Amy Adams, who worked at the department from 2004 to 2013, most recently as a regional-office supervisor. Staffers were no longer sure if they were even supposed to be doing enforcement actions, a range of tactics the state can deploy to compel corporate compliance with the law. "There was a new push to work with and handhold corporations rather than hold them accountable to the level that we always had before," Adams said.

At the same time, the state began slashing DENR's resources and consolidating departments. The number of full-time employees at the department fell from 5,221 in January 2010, to 4,053 in January 2012, to 1,685 in January 2016, according to the state, although many of these employees were transferred, along with the work they did, to other departments. Since 2013, a total of 69 compliance and enforcement positions were eliminated in the department, according to Jamie Kritzer, a Department of Environmental Quality spokesman.

The reduced staff numbers made it hard for DENR to conduct inspections to make sure permits were being followed, Adams said. Enforcing permits and fixing violations is a difficult process to begin with, but with fewer and fewer workers, it became nearly impossible. Resources were put into issuing permits, not enforcing them, she said. Adams, for instance, supervised an area covering 21 counties' worth of wetlands and streams, and after the Republicans took over, her staff shrank from six people to two. "There really was this overall feeling of: 'We don't send violations; we're not going to do enforcement. We're going to be customer-friendly, service-friendly,'" she said.

DENR's lack of enforcement actions didn't sit well with career staffers. In September 2013, Susan Wilson, who had worked for the department for 25 years as a water-quality regulator in Asheville, resigned publicly, writing in an open letter to Skvarla that "I see no reason to continue here-because my own mission-to assist all citizens and protect those that don't have a voice, would be compromised."

Adams resigned just a few months later, in December 2013. She wrote an op-ed in Raleigh's News & Observer that criticized the "soul-crushing" takeover of the department by "politically and ideologically motivated lawmakers." Staffers "are under great pressure to essentially trust the industry's word that everything is in order," she wrote, likening the system to a fox guarding the henhouse. "'Do more with less' has become the mantra of upper management, but we in the ranks heard the message loud and clear: 'Do less. Period.'"

Skvarla responded to Adams with his own op-ed, saying her article was full of "emotion, hyperbole, and conjecture." Then he defended DENR's new business-friendly approach. Under his supervision, the department had been turned from "North Carolina's No. 1 obstacle of resistance into a customer-friendly juggernaut," he wrote. "This is progress!"

Power companies have been burning coal and disposing of its waste for decades. The plants themselves have become much cleaner over time, but in recent years, environmentalists have begun to worry about the dangers of byproducts like coal ash. In 2008, a dike failure at the Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee dumped 5 million cubic yards of coal ash into waterways, destroying nearby homes and focusing national attention on the substance.

Coal ash contains low levels of arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and a collection of other metals. There is some dispute over what level of exposure to these materials is acceptable: The group Physicians for Social Responsibility says that prolonged exposure to coal ash can cause cancer and other diseases. Duke Energy counters that coal ash contains only very low levels of these elements and that anything can be toxic at high levels. The Environmental Protection Agency in 2014 designated coal ash a nonhazardous waste.

Until recently, there were few regulations governing how coal ash was stored, and many energy companies, including Duke Energy, routinely put coal ash into wet basins near their power plants-Duke has 31 such ponds in North Carolina. The ash settles at the bottom of the ponds, and the water on the top of the pond is cleaned and then filtered into nearby waterways. Federal law now requires that ponds with potential structural issues be closed over the next decade, and Duke says it plans to close all of its ponds by 2029.
"Instead of enforcing the law, the state was ... working hand in glove with Duke, as a way to stop citizen law enforcement."
In the meantime, the way that Duke Energy has discharged the water from its coal-ash basins over the last few years has caused controversy in North Carolina. Companies receive permits that govern how they dispose of the byproducts of burning coal, and in 2011, the Southern Environmental Law Center looked into whether Duke Energy was following its permits. The group alleged that Duke was in violation of its permits under the Clean Water Act, because it was discharging polluted water contaminated by coal-ash toxins into nearby rivers and streams in areas where it didn't have permits to do so. Duke disagreed, saying it believed it had complied with all applicable permits.

The Clean Water Act allows citizens' groups to file lawsuits against companies violating the law, but it requires them to file a 60-day notice to state regulators first. In 2013, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed one such 60-day notice, saying it planned to sue Duke Energy for violations of the Clean Water Act at a power plant in Asheville. The plant had been allowed, by permit, to discharge treated wastewater at one location, but it was releasing water contaminated by chemicals from coal combustion-including barium, cobalt, iron, and manganese-at other locations, the complaint said.

But on the 59th day of the 60-day period, right before the Southern Environmental Law Center was going to file its lawsuit, the state stepped in. North Carolina said it was taking its own enforcement actions against the plant, which meant that the organization was prevented from suing Duke Energy. The same thing happened when the Southern Environmental Law Center filed another 60-day notice for a Clean Water Act violation at another plant: At the 11th hour, the state stepped in and said it was doing its own enforcement, and the center once again could not sue Duke Energy.

The Southern Environmental Law Center alleges that the state was intervening not to hold Duke accountable, but to stop the environmentalists' lawsuit from proceeding. Even after stepping in, the state procrastinated on investigating potential pollution at coal-ash sites and on requiring Duke to address water-quality issues, Frank Holleman, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center, told me. "Instead of enforcing the law, the state was using this tool, working hand in glove with Duke, as a way to stop citizen law enforcement," he said. "It was a way to circumvent Duke having to clean up coal-ash pollution." (A new governor was elected in North Carolina in November, and the people who were in charge during the time period this story covers are no longer in office. The current administration said it would not comment on actions taken by the previous administration, but that it was working with the Southern Environmental Law Center and other environmental groups "to find acceptable solutions to protect public health and the environment from coal ash.")

Later in 2013, after a series of public-records requests, the center found that the state and Duke Energy were collaborating on how to proceed. Internal emails showed that after the Southern Environmental Law Center filed its initial 60-day notice, a Duke lobbyist scheduled a meeting with DENR officials, and Duke and the state corresponded over what direction the state would take in its enforcement actions. Duke Energy spokeswoman Paige Sheehan told me that these conversations were not unusual and that Duke has to correspond with regulators to ensure they are following the law. "It is absolutely appropriate for a highly regulated utility to have constructive conversation with the regulator who is overseeing our work," she said.

In July 2013, months after preventing the Southern Environmental Law Center from filing its own lawsuits, the state announced it had come to an agreement with Duke Energy, a $50 billion company: Duke would pay a fine of just $99,111 for violations at the two sites. The low amount drew attention from national regulators like the Environmental Protection Agency, which told the state that the amount "seems low considering the number of years these facilities are alleged to have been out of compliance."

The proposed settlement was proof that the state was getting far too "cozy" with Duke Energy, said Ryke Longest, the director of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Duke University's School of Law. "It's a one-two punch," he said. First, the state "tell[s] the judge that advocates have no place at the table," and then, it turns around and "reach[es] a settlement with the polluter."

But the Southern Environmental Law Center persisted, pledging to fight the settlement. It was preparing a new round of 60-day notices for violations at other sites when the state filed more preemptive enforcement actions-for all 12 of the other sites in the state. The move prevented the center from taking legal action at any other plants in the state, including at the Dan River power plant.

A judge would soon question whether the state investigations into the Duke Energy sites were comprehensive enough. In 2014, the Southern Environmental Law Center sued Duke Energy over coal-ash disposal at its Buck plant, this time for violating federal requirements that the state was not seeking to enforce in its own investigation. Duke Energy filed motions arguing that the center was barred from taking legal action against it. But after looking into the state's efforts at Buck, District Judge Loretta Biggs in 2015 allowed the lawsuit to continue. It did not seem that the state "was trying diligently or that its state enforcement action was calculated, in good faith, to require compliance with the [Clean Water] Act," she wrote. The state had been supposedly litigating its enforcement action for two years, the judge found, but it had taken no depositions or filed any motions requiring Duke to clean up its sites. The state's prosecution "does not inspire confidence," the judge wrote.

Duke Energy disputes that the state was lackadaisical in its enforcement. Sheehan told me that there is a "robust" system in place to monitor water quality at plants throughout the state and that Duke Energy and the state are constantly engaged in dialogue about how Duke can comply with the law. The state, for example, has required Duke to come up with ways to address what are called seeps of water at coal-ash basins. "History will demonstrate that the state has been very tough on us," Sheehan said.

It was while DENR was ostensibly carrying out enforcement actions at all 14 Duke power plants in the state that a pipe below a coal-ash pit burst at a Duke Energy plant in Eden, North Carolina. The Dan River Steam Station spilled 39,000 tons of ash into the Dan River in February 2014. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the spill site extended 70 miles downstream from the Dan River plant.

It's possible that the Dan River spill would have happened regardless of who was in state office, but the Southern Environmental Law Center said that many of the problems that led to the spill at Dan River could have been fixed before 2014 if the state had not tried to stymie efforts to get Duke Energy to change its coal-ash disposal policies. "If the state had been assertive and diligent in enforcing the law, and if Duke itself had been careful and diligent in monitoring the site, the Dan River spill need not have occurred," Holleman said.

Duke Energy pled guilty to environmental crimes after the Dan River spill and agreed to pay $102 million in fines and restitution. In its plea agreement, Duke said that its own engineers had asked for funding to run a camera up a pipe at Dan River to inspect it for corrosion but that the company had refused the request. The camera inspection would have cost Duke $20,000, according to the plea agreement.

The state also found unpermitted seeps of chemicals into water sources at the Riverbend and Asheville plants, according to the plea agreement. At the Riverbend site, the agreement notes, "one or more individuals" created an "unpermitted channel" to allow water contaminated with arsenic, chromium, and a host of other substances to discharge into the Catawba River. Though the state's inspection was completed in 2012, the discharges continued through at least 2014, according to the plea. The state "had enough data to say there's a big problem, but they chose not to require any remedy," said Sam Perkins, a scientist with the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation, a nonprofit that looks after state waterways.

Duke Energy says that the water that flowed into the river at the Riverbend site did not impact water quality. The Department of Environmental Quality frequently visited Duke Energy's sites and was aware of how the company was managing seeps of water from coal-ash basins, Sheehan said. A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Quality told me the state knew about the discharges and that most of them have dried up and are no longer discharging wastewater.

The Dan River spill drew national attention to Duke Energy's tight relationship with the state. "North Carolina citizens have good reason to wonder just whom their environmental regulators are trying to protect," read a 2014 editorial in The New York Times. "The state's Department of Environment and Natural Resources has engaged in a series of maneuvers that seem designed to protect the state's largest utility, Duke Energy, from paying big fines for water pollution from coal ash ponds."

The plea agreement admitted to unauthorized discharges of polluted water at Duke's sites in Asheville, Riverbend, Cape Fear, Lee, and on the Dan River. The first two of those sites were also the first sites where the Southern Environmental Law Center had filed 60-day notices of legal proceedings-and where the state first stepped in to stop those proceedings.
"Oh my God, what have my children been exposed to? ... How many meals did I cook with this water?"
Yet, even after the Dan River spill, North Carolina regulators seemed uninterested in holding Duke Energy accountable. In March 2015, for example, the state fined Duke $25 million for groundwater violations at the Sutton power plant. Duke challenged the penalty in an administrative court, claiming the Sutton plant fine was "unprecedented" and that the state had calculated the fine in a way it never had before. The Department of Environmental Quality subsequently agreed to downsize the $25 million fine and required Duke to pay only $7 million-and not just for the Sutton site, but for groundwater violations at all coal-ash sites in the state. What's more, in the settlement, the state also announced it was settling all groundwater claims with Duke Energy, including all current and future claims that Duke had polluted groundwater.

To some local media outlets, the deal was yet another example of enforcement problems in the state. "This tepid response to reprehensible threats of environmental problems related to coal ash only underscores the attitude of the governor and GOP legislative leaders that business should be left alone with regards to regulation," read an editorial in The News & Observer about the deal.

An administrative court had issued the order approving the settlement, yet the groundwater claims were under review in another court, so environmental groups immediately challenged the administrative court's approval. In 2016, a Wake County judge, Paul Ridgeway, questioned the legality of the approval. He required that Duke Energy and the state alter the language of the order approving the settlement so that it would not apply to all groundwater claims. He also questioned the language of the original settlement. "I do find that the circumstances of this agreement-and quite frankly the insistence of clinging to the language of this agreement-is disturbing," Ridgeway said to lawyers in court, according to The News & Observer. "I have to suspect that there's some ulterior motive."

Amy Brown knew nothing about coal ash when she and her husband moved to Belmont in 2006. Drawn to the area by the good schools and quiet streets, the Browns bought a house at the end of a road, where their sons can safely ride their bikes. Their house has an in-ground pool, where the family used to have big parties every summer. And the neighborhood feels more rural than its proximity to Charlotte-just 30 minutes away without traffic-would suggest. The Browns weren't concerned that the house was just a stone's throw from Duke Energy's Allen power plant: Such plants have been outfitted with emissions technologies that make them much cleaner than they used to be, and Brown said she barely noticed the plant. "It's not like I can see a big, ugly, nasty pit through the trees," she told me.

But then, in late 2014, in the wake of the Dan River spill, the Browns received a postcard in the mail telling them they could have their water tested because they lived near a coal-fired power plant. They agreed to have the testing done, and in April 2015, they received the results. The well water, the testing showed, contained elevated levels of vanadium, which can cause lung damage and symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, stomach cramps, breathing difficulty, and eye, throat, and skin irritation. Brown's water was found to have 6.8 parts per billion of vanadium; the state recommended a maximum level of 0.3 parts per billion. Subsequent testing also found elevated levels of hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen made famous by Erin Brockovich, who investigated levels of that chemical in the water in Hinkley, California. Brown's water had 2.2 parts per billion of hexavalent chromium; the state's recommended maximum level was 0.07 parts per billion. (Concentrations of hexavalent chromium in Hinkley ranged, depending on when the testing was done, from 1.2 to 3.1 parts per billion.)

Brown was shocked. For years, she had been cooking for her children with this water, cutting juice with it, rinsing off bottles and dishes with it. Now, she was being told that the water was not safe to drink. "I thought, 'Oh my God, what have my children been exposed to?'" she told me. "Your mind starts doing all this work, thinking, 'How many meals did I cook with this water?'"

Scientists aren't sure what is causing the elevated levels of hexavalent chromium in the water. The scientific community is in agreement that keeping coal ash in ponds can contaminate groundwater, which is the water found below the surface in cracks and spaces in soil. Groundwater supplies drinking water for about half of the U.S. population.

"I think it's fair to say that most of these impoundments that have not been built to contain and prevent leaking are in fact leaking and are in fact polluting the groundwater," said Patrick Parentau, a professor of law at Vermont Law School who studies water-quality issues.

There are a number of documented cases in which coal-ash basins have contaminated nearby groundwater and surface water. In March, a federal judge found that arsenic from a coal-ash pit operated by Dominion Virginia Power was leaking into the groundwater, which then made its way to the surface water in violation of the Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency, in coming up with rules on the disposal of coal ash, documented more than two-dozen proven "damage cases" where coal-ash ponds had contaminated groundwater and surface water with chemicals, including arsenic, cadmium, and chromium. The agency listed three sites in North Carolina.

Yet whether the substance is contaminating drinking water is a matter of dispute. It can be difficult to determine the direction that contaminated groundwater is traveling-to do so requires expensive tests that include sinking wells in various locations and testing the water pulled from those wells, Parentau told me. "When it comes to toxicology, that's an incredibly technical thing to establish," he said.

Avner Vengosh, a professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke University, told me that his team had spent 10 years studying coal ash in the South. In the case of North Carolina, he said, they found that coal ash was potentially polluting the groundwater but not the water in wells. "It polluted groundwater that is not used for drinking," he told me. The homeowners with elevated levels of chemicals were seeing those elevated levels because of factors unrelated to coal ash, he said. The Southern Environmental Law Center says a separate study from scientists at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, has found that drinking-water wells near the Allen Plant, where Amy Brown lives, are indeed drawing groundwater contaminated by coal ash. But an author of that study, William Langley, said it was a draft that modeled a worst-case scenario that may not represent what is actually happening on the ground.

Whatever the source of the contamination, families probably shouldn't drink the water, and most people in North Carolina agree on one thing: The state did not do a good job of communicating the health risks to residents. That's because, in addition to recommending that the homeowners avoid drinking their water, letters from the state also contained a line that read, "While this recommendation represents the maximum in health protection, your well would still meet all the criteria of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act for public drinking water sources." But this was misleading: The water met federal standards only because there is no federal Safe Drinking Water Act standard for vanadium, and while there are such standards for total chromium, they do not specifically address levels of hexavalent chromium. Meanwhile, the water did not meet standards calculated by the state health department for hexavalent chromium, which used the threshold of a one-in-a-million cancer risk-essentially the presence of one additional case of cancer during a lifetime in a population of a million people.
The McCrory administration was essentially countermanding public-health officials' judgment over what levels of chemicals in the water should be considered troubling.
The letters about the water "were very poorly handled," McGrady, the moderate Republican legislator, told me. "I don't think anyone in the state thinks the state handled that well."

According to former state toxicologist Ken Rudo, the line that the water met federal standards was added by state environmental regulators against the wishes of state health-department staff, which had been pressured to downplay the risks of drinking the water. In a deposition, Rudo said that he was asked to send out letters warning people that the drinking water contained elevated levels of chemicals. But just as he was about to send out those letters, he later testified, the state contacted him and wanted him to add a line telling people the water was safe to drink. Rudo and his colleagues objected-because of "ethical reasons more than anything," he said in the deposition-and said if the state were to send out such language, he wanted his name taken off the letter. The state added the line anyway, when he was on vacation, Rudo said in the deposition. "They added language basically saying this was the maximum risk, literally right after we are telling people not to drink their water," he said. "And it was just amazing, misleading, and dishonest language."

In 2015, McCrory appointed a new deputy secretary in the state's Department of Health and Human Services, Randall Williams, who pushed back against the staff recommendations on the levels of chemicals that could safely be in the water. Williams thought that the standards the state health department had used to issue the do-not-drink letters were too conservative, and he had the department send out another round of letters telling well owners that their water was safe to drink. "Now that we have had time to study and review more data, we have concluded that it is appropriate to return to drinking and using your water for cooking and other uses," the letter read. No new testing had been done-Williams instead used a different standard from the one Rudo used when issuing the initial health recommendations.

The McCrory administration, Duke University's Longest said, was essentially countermanding public-health officials' judgment over what levels of hexavalent chromium and vanadium in the water are dangerous."It was really about allowing the health director to use concern about political fallout to influence a risk decision, which is completely unprecedented," he said.

The controversy over whether the well water was safe to drink didn't end there. Once Rudo's deposition became public, Tom Reeder, an official with the Department of Environmental Quality, and Williams, the deputy health secretary, published an open letter in August 2016 questioning Rudo's calculations about whether the water was safe to drink, calling his approach "unprofessional."

Many people in North Carolina, however, stood by Rudo. "It's clear that the state's overall water quality is at risk under an administration and a legislature that see environmental regulation as a nuisance that hinders industry," The Charlotte Observer wrote in an editorial last August.

The direct attack on a state scientist also rattled health-department staffers. Megan Davies, who was at the time North Carolina's state epidemiologist, told me that Rudo had arrived at the levels for vanadium and hexavalent chromium in compliance with a North Carolina law passed in 2014 that referenced state groundwater rules. These rules specify that recommendations for groundwater contain no more than a one-in-a-million increase in the risk of cancer, she said, which is how the environmental agency's toxicologists came up with the number 0.07 parts per billion for hexavalent chromium. Soon after Reeder and Williams published their letter attacking Rudo, Davies resigned. In her resignation letter, she reminded the state that other departments had approved of the way Rudo had calculated the water standards, and she accused Reeder and Williams of misinforming the public. "I cannot work for a Department and an Administration that deliberately misleads the public," she wrote.

After the Dan River spill and the controversy over the drinking water, some state legislators redoubled their efforts to get Duke Energy to clean up its coal-ash basins. But they said they were largely stymied by pressure from the company and from the governor's office.

"It's nearly impossible to do anything in the legislature that Duke Energy hasn't signed off on," Pricey Harrison, a Democrat in North Carolina's General Assembly, told me. Harrison has been trying to pass coal-ash cleanup bills since 2008 but says that she "keeps running into all kinds of roadblocks due to Duke's pervasive influence in the legislature and the governor's office."

Duke Energy says those allegations are "ridiculous." Duke works for the best interests of its customers, Sheehan, the spokeswoman, assured me, and does so using science-based decisions "that protect people, the environment, and manage costs." But Harrison isn't convinced.

There are two main ways to get rid of coal ash. The most thorough-and expensive-way is to excavate the basins, which means the ponds are drained and the coal ash is dug up and moved away from waterways. (Dry pits can also be excavated.) But the pits can also be capped in place, which means the ponds are drained of water, covered with a synthetic liner, and contained. Though North Carolina initially said Duke Energy would likely have to excavate all of its basins in the state, it later reversed itself, Harrison said, due in large part to pressure from Duke Energy.

Compare this with the state's neighbor, South Carolina, where every utility company is excavating the coal ash from their unlined waterfront coal-ash basins, according to Holleman. That's in part because the Southern Environmental Law Center filed lawsuits against two power companies in South Carolina in 2012 and 2013 over coal-ash pollution, and South Carolina's environmental agency did not intervene, Holleman said. The Southern Environmental Law Center then reached settlements with the two power companies, and both are now digging up coal ash and moving it elsewhere. (Duke Energy also operates in South Carolina, and it is excavating the coal-ash basins at its two plants there.)

For a short time, it seemed that the state of North Carolina would force Duke Energy to dig up all its coal-ash basins as well. In 2014, the state passed the Coal Ash Management Act, which McCrory claimed was at the forefront of such legislation nationwide. That law required Duke to evaluate all its coal-ash basins across the state. The Department of Environmental Quality was then required to review Duke's evaluations and rank the sites as presenting high, intermediate, or low risk, which would in turn determine whether they'd be excavated or capped. High- and intermediate-risk sites would have to be excavated; low-risk sites could potentially be capped in place.

Environmentalists oppose the capping approach because they say it puts a bandage on, but does not address the crux of, the problem-covering the coal ash, rather than removing it. Duke Energy, however, says that excavation is time-consuming and expensive, and that it can cause more environmental damage, through truck traffic and pollution, than leaving the pits in place. Few communities want new coal-ash pits nearby, so it can also be difficult to find a place to put the material.

Robert Percival, the director of the environmental law program at the University of Maryland's law school, told me that capping does have some benefits. Capping would slow down the process through which contaminants leak into groundwater, for example. But if coal ash is stored in an unlined pit, even one that is dry, chemicals will eventually leak into groundwater, he said. "Just putting a cap over an unlined pit isn't going to completely solve the problem," he said.

In presentations to the legislature, Duke Energy estimated that the cost of excavating all of its coal-ash basins in North Carolina would range from $2 billion to $8 billion. Longest, the Duke University professor, said he attended one such presentation to the legislature. "You could see in the room the reaction of the legislature and their faces, when they saw what the cost of cleanup was going to be," he told me. The expense would likely be passed along to their constituents.

When the Department of Environmental Quality issued its site rankings in May 2016, it found that all sites in the state were high- or intermediate-risk sites and thus needed to be excavated. (The department also requested it be allowed to revisit the rankings in 18 months.) In response to the rankings, both the state regulatory agency and Duke Energy said they wanted to see changes to the 2014 legislation. Without changes, Duke said, "the state will have chosen the most extreme closure option that will have a significant impact on customer costs and hinder economic development."

Soon thereafter, in the summer of 2016, the state passed the Drinking Water Protection/Coal Ash Cleanup Act, which Holleman calls "The Duke Bailout Bill." The act stated that if Duke provided drinking water to people living near certain sites and if it repaired dams at those locations, then those sites could be classified as low priority and, under a subsequent process, may not have to be excavated.
"Normally, goodwill doesn't come with strings attached."
Duke Energy says that the original recommendations to require excavation were based on incomplete information and that the state did not have enough time to incorporate relevant scientific research. The utility is already embarking on an aggressive closure effort as it plans to drain its ponds, Sheehan told me. The 2016 bill will allow science and engineering to drive decisions about which coal-ash basins will be closed, Sheehan said, and it will bring North Carolina up to speed with the rest of nation in how such basins are managed.

North Carolina was not unique in allowing the utility to cap its coal-ash pits. The Tennessee Valley Authority is planning to close and cap 10 coal-ash ponds at power plants in Tennessee and Alabama. The Environmental Protection Agency also requires that coal-ash ponds that are closed and capped be monitored to make sure they aren't having an adverse affect on the groundwater, according to Jim Roewer, the executive director of the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group, a trade association that handles solid- and hazardous-waste issues for the utility industry.

But the legislation disturbed some lawmakers in both parties. McGrady, who helped craft the original legislation, voted against it. "It basically said that everything that was left was going to be capped in place, which included some of the biggest basins out there," he told me. Harrison said that the bill "was a gift to the governor and his administration, and to Duke Energy."

Amy Brown told me she was disappointed but not surprised when the bill passed. The law means that, despite regulators' initial recommendations to excavate the coal-ash pits, Duke Energy can instead drain the ponds and cap the dry pits. All that Duke has to do now is fix some dams and provide the Browns and other families across the state with an alternative supply of water. "It was a way for them to look like they're doing something for us, but in return, they still get what they wanted," she said.

Although Duke Energy contends that its coal-ash pits are completely safe and that it has safely handled its coal-ash sites across North Carolina, in January it sent out a "goodwill" package to homeowners like the Browns who live near coal-ash sites. It offered each household $5,000 and volunteered to make up for lost property values if people were trying to sell their homes and found their property was selling below market rates. It also said it would subsidize their water bills if they connected to public water lines.

Duke Energy says it is offering the package to homeowners to help "ease their transition" to a new water supply. Neighbors are concerned about having a water bill they've never had before, Sheehan said, and the company is trying to address those concerns. "We wanted to be responsive to concerns of long-term residents," Sheehan told me.

But there's a catch. If residents accept the goodwill packages, they must agree not to sue Duke Energy or seek additional compensation over water-quality issues. It is this requirement that has led Brown and other homeowners to question Duke's intent. The company says it is not culpable for contaminants in the water, but it wants nearby residents to sign away their legal rights anyway, Brown said. "Normally, goodwill doesn't come with strings attached," she told me.

The State's ACtions in North Carolina echo the approach the Trump administration seeks to bring to federal environmental regulation. North Carolina cut staff and funding from the state's Department of Environment and Natural Resources, cuts that former staffers said made it impossible to enforce the laws; Trump's team has vowed to reduce the workforce of the Environmental Protection Agency by two-thirds and cut its budget in half.

Skvarla, the head of North Carolina's Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said he treated the private sector as "partners," turning his department into a "customer-friendly juggernaut," where the customers were businesses. Emails released in February indicate that Scott Pruitt, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, closely collaborated with oil and gas producers and electric utilities to weaken environmental regulations when he was Oklahoma's attorney general.

After successful lobbying by the coal industry, in June the North Carolina legislature passed a law that allowed companies to keep many coal-ash pits in place, overriding an earlier law that would likely have required companies to excavate them. Earlier this month, in a letter to the president of the Environmental Council of the States, Pruitt said that his agency plans to reconsider a rule that establishes limits for some of the toxins and heavy metals discharged by coal-ash sites and that the agency seeks to push back a 2018 compliance deadline.

If North Carolina is any indication, the country could see an Environmental Protection Agency with less regulatory verve and an environment with more pollution, said Longest. "The same fate may befall the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as befell the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources-a demoralized and decimated workforce and a public left to fend for itself," he said.

Some members of the public have taken seriously the responsibility of fending for themselves, stepping in to hold Duke Energy accountable when they felt the state did not. Groups like the Southern Environmental Law Center battled Duke Energy repeatedly in court, and they continue to do battle with the state, even though the fight over coal ash has gone on for more than five years. Anyone who wants to influence environmental policy can't just trust their government, Holleman told me. "Environmental laws will be adequately enforced, and our natural resources will be protected," he said, "only if citizens and nonprofit citizen organizations take direct action and insist in the public arena and in the courts that our water and our air be protected."

That's what Amy Brown did. Once she learned that her water was not safe to drink, she started making phone calls. She called the state, Duke Energy, and local reporters. After a month, she had convinced Duke to provide her with bottled water every few weeks-before they began doing so statewide. When she found out that Duke wasn't providing bottled water to her neighbors, she started going door to door, giving her neighbors a phone number to call, a person to nag. The truck started delivering water to the whole neighborhood.

The blue Dasani bottles are stacked everywhere-on her kitchen counter, next to the brown leather couch where her son watches television, outside under the carport, and next to a sign in her front lawn that reads, "Clean Drinking Water for All." In many places, the stacks of water are taller than her 4-year-old.

What she has learned, Brown said, is not to trust anyone but herself. "We get comfortable and assume that these people in these positions are doing their job, which is to act in the best interest of the people," she said. "But that's just not the case."

It is partly because of people like Brown that McCrory lost his reelection to Roy Cooper, a Democrat, in November 2016. Cooper campaigned hard on the coal-ash issue, running ads about the controversial "do-not-drink" letters and about the spate of resignations from state departments. A poll of North Carolina residents, commissioned by Human Rights Watch and conducted by a Democratic polling firm, found that of the top-three reasons people said they didn't vote for McCrory, the number-two reason was his handling of coal ash.

Brown herself was a registered Republican, but she changed her party registration to Independent after her experience with the state and coal ash. She supported Cooper in the election. "I started to realize the connection between the big companies and the Republicans," she said. "They would rather protect the polluter than the people."

Brown is now a full-fledged activist and is constantly on the phone with reporters, neighbors, and other families who live near coal-ash sites. Her young son has learned to wait patiently while she sits at her kitchen table poring through documents relating to coal ash. She despairs that he's growing up in a household where he can't take a bath and where he can't drink the water. "You don't even know that you need protection until you've had to fight for it," Brown told me. It's something that millions of Americans may discover for themselves in the years ahead.

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North Carolina: Where the Government Has Already Weakened Environmental Protections

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The state's GOP leadership tried to make the state more business-friendly. Now residents are saying their water isn't safe to drink.

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Children are being separated from parents when their parents legally apply for asylum. The federal government deports parents, but has not been able to match children to their parents. (Shannon)

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The number of migrant children detained in federal shelters has increased fivefold to 12,800 - even after the Trump administration ended its policy of separating children from their parents at the border, a source said.

The number of detained children has risen from just 2,400 in May of last year and the increase is mostly due to the reluctance of administration officials to allow children to be relocated to sponsors or family members, a source told The Post on Wednesday.

The numbers were first reported by the New York Times.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for resettling the kids, said the children were being kept at the facilities partly due to a risk of becoming victims of human trafficking.

"HHS, as required by law, seeks to place each unaccompanied alien child in the least restrictive setting consistent with the best interest of the child," a statement from the department read.

"Because children who enter the country illegally are at high risk for exploitation by traffickers and smugglers, [HHS] maintains high standards for vetting children's sponsors for the safety and well-being of the child."

The rapidly expanding number of migrants came to light as the government announced that it is expanding a temporary shelter constructed near the border in Tornillo, Texas.

The facility will grow its tent shelter to 3,800 beds and keep it open through the end of this year.

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Number of detained migrant kids skyrockets to over 12,000

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The number of migrant children detained in federal shelters has increased fivefold to 12,800 - even after the Trump administration ended its policy of separating children from their parents at the border, a source said.

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Immigration Muslim Grandmother Stuck in Turkey

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Immigration Muslim Grandmother Stuck in Turkey

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The grandmother of the UNC dental student that was murdered has been a refugee from Syria for 2 years. She has been homeless staying with different networks in Turkey. Her daughter and other grandson are citizens of the U.S. They petitioned to get her in the U.S.and was in the process, just as Trump Admin. placed Muslim ban.  She has been waiting for over a year. Congressmen Price and Butterfield are trying to bring her into the U.S. (Shannon)

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3 students killed in chapel hill shooting - cnn

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3 students killed in Chapel Hill shooting - CNN

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Was the shooting of three family members near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a hate crime?

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Our best African American students are not getting jobs out of high school and college.

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Our best African American students are not getting jobs out of high school and college.

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Knightdale High students are doing what they are asked. They work hard, and take on big debt for college, yet they come home without jobs. How do we connect teens to meaningful out of school opportunities to get needed work experience before college? (Shannon)

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Stepping into the working environment is not easy, especially if you have never held a job or haven't had much experience. The transition from an academic environment to the real world can be daunting for many students. So, the question is, what can help me in this difficult process?! The answer is easy and simple... basic work experience.

How can this help? Well here are 5 reasons why:
One...
Recruiters absolutely look for experience, why is that? Because it is evidence that you have actually done work and that you are motivated to get into a chosen career and you don't spend your summer lazing around! It also shows you have passion and interest to actually work.

Unfortunately, according to recent stats, there has been a downfall in teenagers undertaking a part time job. It is revealed that only 18% of 16 and 17-year-olds work part-time, compared to 42% in 1997.
Two...
If you have no idea what career you want to go into, work experience is a perfect way to help you make that difficult decision. It's a way of exploring different jobs without actually committing to anything. You get to experiment in different job sectors until you find the one which is right for you.
Three...
Experience is a way of getting introduced the working life. Vitally, it'll give you an idea of the skills you might need to thrive in the workplace. You'll get to know the do's and don'ts and what it is like in the actual working environment.
Four...
It's all about networking and building contacts. Gaining work experience is a great way to build references and perhaps getting recommended to other employers and organisations. It also a good way to finding out about industries and jobs you did not know even existed and had never really thought about, in which you may find yourself to be highly interested in!
Five...
And of course, the most obvious reason... It looks good on your CV! Recruiters love seeing whether you have experience. It's not only beneficial to you but it is also beneficial to them in order to increase the productivity of their business. You have the opportunity to demonstrate your great skills and qualities, which could eventually be transferrable skills into your dream career.

Think about it, you will not be the only person applying for that one position, there's going to be loads of graduates like you, so how can you stand out from the crowd? Valuable work experience.

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The value of work experience - Discovery | Your workforce reimagined

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Stepping into the working environment is not easy, especially if you have never held a job or haven't had much experience. The transition from an academic environment to the real world can be daunting for many students. So, the question is, what can help me in this difficult process?!