Leah_Beno's Blog

Trying to talk with lawmakers on the local, state, or national level can be a challenge sometimes, depending on where they are located. Tonight we had to use the last tool in our TV tool box, the good old phone interview. But it worked. Plus the people I wanted to talk with were very eager to chime in to the controversial debate over offshore drilling.

I had a chance to talk on the phone with US Representative Sue Myrick, shortly after she got off a plane in Washington D.C. And I also talked via the phone with State Representative Pricey Harrison, she had a few minutes for us during her busy schedule in Raleigh.

Representative Myrick says technology has come a long way in recent years. She says the last oil spill and concern over pollution she can recall was in the 1960's. Representative Myrick says " offshore drilling will do a couple things, one it will put us on track, being dependent on ourselves, and point us toward the alternatives that are already out there. It will send a message to the market that we are serious about markets about doing something about supply." Myrick agrees it will be several years before we see relief at the pumps, but adds drilling of North Carolina's coast could bring billions of dollars to the state.

Obviously there is a lot more to this argument. My question to you is should we start drilling off North Carolina's coast? Can't wait to hear from you!

Less than 24 hours after reporting on a few furniture jobs coming back to High Point, tonight I'm back to reporting on layoffs. I'm sad to say 300 furniture makers from Drexel Heritage/ Henredon Plant #37 will soon be out of a job. Brenda Wikle started sewing at the plant 21 years ago. She has co-workers with 30, 45, even 50 years experience. Obviously a huge amount of talent here in the piedmont...no one will argue that.

Since I started reporting in the Piedmont, too many of our reports about the furniture industry involve jobs LEAVING the area. Today I had a chance to do the exact opposite.

With the price of fuel skyrocketing, faster then anyone can handle, some business is returning for local furniture manufactures. Casey Hearn started Joseph-Samuel Specialties (named after his two sons). The small furniture making company started filling orders in January. Hearn says about 75% of his business comes from companies who used to have their furniture made overseas, and now want it made in the good old US of A. The owner of the Red Egg, Carol Gregg, is one of Hearn's clients. Gregg says it used to cost her about $1,200 to ship a 40 foot container (that's about 250 pieces of furniture) from China. With today's fuel costs, that same container would cost Gregg about $6,000 to ship the same distance. Not to mention the cost of labor is also going up overseas, just one of  many other factors that comes into play in this debate.

The American Home Furniture Alliance says it's too early to say this is a trend. Domestic manufacturing is competitive with international manufacturing but not necessarily cheaper. The AHFA says companies should consider manufacturing local vs. international on a case by case basis AND it should be a long term decision.

So for all of you furniture experts (or just those of you have lived in the furniture capital longer then I have) what do you think? Do you think high fuel costs can drive the furniture industry back to the piedmont?

I.D. cards for sale at the 11acre Flea Market. A company based out of Florida called Numedia International LLC. advertised they will be at the Flea Market in Thomasville this weekend. People can buy a NON-Governmental I.D. at the Flea Market and take it home the same day. Que Pasa ran a full page in their last newspaper edition and a half page ad in the edition before.

Members of the Latino Action Round Table Committee in Lexington believe Numedia is targeting illegal immigrants because they are so desperate for any sort of documentation. The Round Table Committee fears people palnning to buy an I.D for $90 don't realize the I.D. won't do them any good.

The Executive Editor of Que Pasa added a headline to the advertisement before it ran warning people the I.D.cards are not issued by the government. Que Pasa plans to retract the ad and warn hispanic readers about these types of I.D cards.

There obviously is a lot more to this story, but I'll cut myself off here and open the flood gates.

What do you think?

Prior to my 16th birthday I remember rolling my eyes in the back seat as my parents talked endlessly about gas prices...now here I am reporting on them. My how things change.

Today my photographer and I went out in search of the highest gas price we could find. After about a half dozen painful pump pictures I thought $3.28 was going to take the crown for the most expensive price per gallon. That was until I spotted $3.39 per gallon! Wow.

So I'm curious....where are the most and least expensive gas stations in the piedmont?

Can Fantastik cleaner used against a student be considered assault? I talked to one parent who says YES.

An 8th grade student at North West Middle School in Winston-Salem says her substitute teacher sprayed her with Fantastik when she wouldn't stop talking in class. The students mother has since gone to the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School Board and filled assault charges.

The school district suspended the substitute teacher, Laura Robinson. I talked with Robinson who told me she started subbing this year after teaching full time in the district for 31 years. Robinson was teacher of the year three times and says she had a great career... until now.

So what do you think?

If there is one bad thing about reporting the news, it's reporting the death of a teenager. Unfortunately, teens passing away in car accidents happens all to often. But tonight I learned a little more about a product that keeps teen drivers in check. (or at least makes them think twice about their driving)

Safeco Insurance launched a program called Teensurance, which is GPS tracking system installed inside a teenagers car. Parents use a website to pick personalized settings including curfew, speed, and a range of miles. If ( or should I say when) a teen driver exceeds the setting, their parent is alerted by phone, text or e-mail. Plus, parents can log onto a website at anytime and see exactly where their teen's car is parked.

Safeco buys and installs the GPS device for free and parents pay a monthly $15 charge. The insurance company believes by making teens better drivers, there will be fewer car accidents, few insurance claims, and thus few injuries or deaths. Plus a 15% discount for teen insurance policies actually saves parents up to $200. So the system pays for itself.

High Point Police love the Teensurance idea and one family we talked to says so far it's working. Trey Hamilton is 16 years old and says at first he didn't like the idea of his parents "spying on him." However, Trey does like the other added bonus and security of road side assistance.

I know one thing, if Teensurance had been around when I was a teenager, my high school days would have been much different. I was never ticketed for speeding and have never been in a car accident ( knock on wood) but my mom would have paid any price to log onto a website and see exactly where my little red Saturn was located.

What would you eat?

Forget Lexington vs. Eastern style BBQ, what if you were allergic to food? Tonight I met 10 year old Zach Wilson from Burlington. Zach suffers from a rare disease called eosinophilic esophagitis, or EE for short. Basically white blood cells attack certain foods Zach eats, and figuring out which foods he can eat has proven to me a life long struggle.

At 8 years old Zach weighed just 38 pounds and vomited five out of seven days a week. After a lot of doctors, a lot of tests and a feeding tube for more than two years, Zach has a list of about 20 foods he CAN EAT.

As of today Zach can eat:

Bananas, strawberries, grapes, oranges, tomatoes, cantaloupe, green beans, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, chicken, beef, pork, tangerines, wheat, corn, oats, rice, salt, pepper, and sugar.

Apples and milk products have proven to make Zach sick to his stomach. Spices or added seasoning forget it. This month Zach is testing soy with the other foods he can eat. So far soy seems to be staying down...for the most part.

I think any of us in Zach's position would sneak a treat or two, but we don't get the back lash Zach gets. Zach ate a few sour cream potato chips at a friends house about a month ago...today he paid for it, puking and all day.

For the most part Zach doesn't cheat on his diet. Zach went two solid years without eating anything beyond his list of foods, which at the time included about half the foods he can eat today. I can barely limit myself to two brownies.  I admire Zach's self control and positive attitude. Zach hasn't let EE stop him from playing soccer, baseball, basketball, and soon football. Zach doesn't pity his situation he laughs at it and says "this is just part of my life."

The debate over this story really got some people going in our newsroom tonight. Here's the story in a nutshell... Is a play which includes the F-word, S-word, lots of profanity, and sexual content appropriate when it's being performed by high school students? It depends on who you ask.

Apparently the drama teacher at Southwest High School in High Point thought the script entitled "Shape of Things" was a good choice for students ranging from 9th grade to 12th grade. The students practiced an edited version of the play for weeks, without the school principal or any other school officials knowing what it was about. Even with some editing the play included plenty of profanity and sexual references. The students performed "The Shape of Things" for the first (and only) time last weekend. A group of about 40 students and parents were not warned about the explicit content they were about to witness. The movie version of the play is rated "R."

School Board Member,Garth Hebert, is appalled. He has a son who attends Southwest High School, and says this is not the type of play that should be representing the school or Guilford County Schools. Neither the principal or Garth Hebert attend the performance, but they don't like what they've heard.

The principal, Alan Parker, immediately stopped performances of the play from continuing. That means the students will not perform at the annual state competition as planned. From now on Parker has made it school policy to personally approve all scripts to be performed at the school.

So what do you think? Some students we talked to admit they use profanity everyday, so hearing it in play is not a big deal. While other students admit such a script chosen by a teacher is inappropriate. And should the drama teacher who chose this play be punished?

Here's a link to the original script of "The Shape of Things." The version students at Southwest performed did include some editing.

www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/shape-of-thing
s-script.html.