- Hi, I'm Marc Rotterman.

Coming up on Front Row, sex traffickers target women and children fleeing Ukraine, North Carolina lands its first automaker, and the FDA approves a second COVID booster for adults over 50.

Next.

- [Narrator] Major funding for Front Row is provided by Robert L Luddy additional funding provided by Patricia and Koo Yuen through the Yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities and by funding for the lightning round provided by Boddie-Noell Foundation, NC Realtors, Mary Louise and John Burress, Rifenberg Construction and Helen Laughery.

A complete list of funders can be found at pbsc.org/front row.

[serious music] ♪ - Welcome back.

Joining the conversation, Donna King with Carolina journal broadcast journalist, Jonah Kaplan Republican state, Senator Vicki Sawyer and Nelson Dollar senior advisor in North Carolina speaker house.

Donna, why don't we begin with yet another disturbing story coming out of Ukraine.

- It really, it just doesn't seem to be ending.

And this one, unfortunately comes as very little surprise more than 3 million people have fled Ukraine into neighboring countries, Poland and others over the last month or so among them 500 unaccompanied children.

And it's really, they've really become targets for human trafficking and for, you know, human slavery and and all of these other problems that are happening.

There's a lot of problems with gangs and and sex traffickers targeting these women and children who are in desperate traits.

UNICEF said that they're having a problem with identifying some of the people who are showing up in their private cars, volunteering to take people home.

And a lot of these people are just desperate.

They're women with children.

They have nowhere to go and they're getting in cars and they don't know what's happening to them.

UNICEF says that they anticipate increased in this happening.

And theyre seeing a lot of them are showing up with, you know glow vests as though they're volunteers and just absconding with people.

And I think we're gonna hear some really really disturbing stories coming as this continues.

One of the problems that they've had is that these women are just, just becoming targets.

And this was already a problem in Ukraine before this happened before this war and it's accelerating in the chaos.

- Johnny, you have the floor - This story is not going to end when the war ends.

I mean, we know that first of all if you look back at any European war they don't just last months, they last years.

And the ramifications of that.

And when we think about open borders too I mean the European union this is an issue that has long plagued the union because once many refugees or immigrants no matter why they were fleeing, they were able to move in many different places within Europe.

And that creates issues related to jobs.

It creates issues related to housing and eventually this is going to make its way to the United States as well.

And this was the warning I think at the start of the war was the immigration crisis and the and the refugees, because it becomes a human toll not just the death, but it's not like they can go back to Mariupoll.

It's not like they can go back to Lviv.

When, if, if God forbid, it's destroyed where do these people go?

This is a nation of 44 million people.

They're gonna have to be absorbed somewhere.

And Europe, America, the Western world are we going to absorb these people?

And what does that mean when there's also a whole nother immigration crisis on the Southern border with title 42, about to be repealed?

- Nelson, we also have a problem right here in North Carolina with sex trafficking.

- Absolutely.

And that's the unfortunate thing.

Human trafficking is a problem here.

The general assembly 10 years ago created the North Carolina human trafficking commission.

Since that time, we have actually passed 14 bills to provide better legal protections, as well as a full range of services for the victims of human and sex trafficking especially the children.

And of course, we've also increased punishments for those that engage in what I, what amounts to really modern day slave trade.

The budget that we just passed had $8.8 million in grant funding for a range of nonprofits around the state to continue to provide additional services for the victims of human trafficking.

And of course, chief justice Newby in January declared that month human trafficking awareness month - Vicki jump in here.

- Well, really concerning is I heard a story come out of a mother who got her son out of Ukraine.

She had 400 Ukrainian hryvnia in her pocket.

She went to go get that exchanged which she came with was $12 and 22 cents compounding that problem is that she could not get money out of her bank account.

Although the bank had the same name as her one in Ukraine it actually did not communicate with them.

So therefore she was penniless or at least $12 and 22 cents in our pocket.

- Donna wrap this up in about 30 seconds.

- That's devastating.

That's a great example.

We don't know what the unintended consequences sometimes of our foreign policy for things like this and and being a place where we can provide a lot of our, our a lot of our nonprofit groups like UNICEF and supporting them in their effort to get people into a safe accommodations and, and safe care.

That's an important part of who we are as Americans - Let's change topics some good news for a change, big job win for North Carolina this week - After decades of trying, we finally landed a car company.

So Ven fast which is Vietnam's first global venture into electric Automobile manufacturing will build a $4 billion plant on 2100 2100 acres in Chatham county.

That's just north of Sanford.

The initial plans call for 7,000 workers producing 200,000 SUVs annually including EV battery manufacturing.

The state and county are investing 1.25 billion in roads water and sewer job credits.

When the jobs are actually created North Carolina, a lot of people don't know is already one of the largest producers of vehicle parts and materials for cars and trucks.

This plant will attract more suppliers, more jobs.

In addition to the ones working in the plant and interesting thing the Vietnamese ambassador to the US and their and their ambassador to the UN were here for the their country's biggest investment venture in a plant only 30 minutes north of Fort Bragg.

So there's some possible sense of healing going on - Vicki.

You were out there.

- I was out there and I was excited to see the energy around it, but you know not to be a Debbie downer on this, you know as someone who has an appropriations pen for the North Carolina department of transportation who's really been, believed and struggling since 2017 especially with their current plan.

Some predicting being $11 billion, you know, underfunded you know, you're looking at a $250 to $450 million price tag on this and you wonder where's the money coming from.

So I'm grateful, I'm cautiously optimistic, but I do really have concerns about where the money's coming from.

- Are incentives now just built into every package?

Is it proforma, Donna?

- It appears to be, I mean, we're talking about, by the time it all shakes out it's about $1.2 billion.

Over 700 million of it is coming in reimbursable tax credits, once they start hitting those hiring numbers.

But the big thing is, is North Carolina's a fantastic place to come and start a business and bring a plant because in the last budget that was just signed we're gonna start phasing out that corporate tax.

So that 32 year window where they're gonna get, $1.2 billion is gonna be spent by the state for this, in much of that they may not pay corporate income tax.

And that's something to really think about.

You know, half a million or 450 million is gonna be in infrastructure.

There's a lot of price tags associated with this and California paid them $20 million for their headquarters.

- Jonah.

- Last time I checked you go to almost anywhere, it says help wanted.

So the key, really, is about filling those jobs.

And especially as we look to folks in high school, folks in college, are they going into the trades?

Are they going to become manufacturers, masons, electricians, plumbers, and now car mechanics.

So, it's wonderful to keep bringing these employers.

But one thing I remember talking with Governor Cooper, he says, "What keeps me up at night, is we got all these employers coming.

We've gotta be able to feed them with our talented pools coming from our universities."

So my question, I guess my challenge to lawmakers is, what kind of partnerships can you incentivize and create between these manufacturers, these big companies, whether they're in tech or manufacturing, whatever.

And partner with the high schools, partner with the colleges and the community colleges to generate interest in these, and not just the big tech companies.

- And folks are gonna need an affordable housing, aren't they Vicky?

- Yeah, so we're already looking at a housing, I guess some people say crisis, but as you had mentioned before, Mark, the interest rates are going up, the supply is down.

So we do have some issues facing us about how and where are these people gonna live.

To your point about community college though, they were there and present at that announcement and they are really excited about gearing their education towards filling those jobs.

You know, I know back in my own, I'm gonna brag about Surry Community College.

They do a great job with their truck driving school and they've just recently placed 80 to 100 high school students in manufacturing and other types of work, so they can have an internship for meaningful work.

- Okay, I'm coming right back to you.

The FDA just to approved another booster for adults over 50.

Talk to us about it.

- Well, if you're over 50 and you have certain kinds of conditions, the FDA and now the CDC, recommends and says that if it's been four months since your last booster shot, regardless of which one it was, you can have a Pfizer and Moderna shot.

Now, like anything with COVID, it seems like there's a point and a counter point.

So let's go to this counterpoint.

Some people look at those research coming out of Israel, saying that really it did not affect those over 60, who had this additional booster shot.

There wasn't a decrease in hospitalizations or disease spread or deaths.

They also worry about how long the actual effects of this final booster shot is.

Again, the counterpoint to that is, it can't hurt.

So we'll see how it works out.

And hopefully folks will have choices to do what they want to if you're over 50 and you want that shot.

- Donna, I see Fauci's talking about lockdowns maybe in the future, again.

- I think so, but I think also we're, you know... - Think the American people will put up with that?

- I think they're tired of it.

And I think we're two years in, almost three years into this and I'm not sure how much weight that opinion on MSNBC or CNN might be, because I'm not sure people are listening as much as they used to.

And with this new booster, a lot of folks are saying that the existing vaccines that we have are quite effective.

And unless you do have some of these extenuating circumstances, medical problems or you're over 70, 75, another booster may not really be additional protection, and we're not going to be able to booster ourselves out of this necessarily.

It's really about getting a global vaccination and tamping it down that way because this new BA.2 variant, they're finding is really not as injurious, is not creating the hospitalization rates that they were concerned it would.

- Jonah, where are we on cases in North Carolina now?

- I think it's a tough question to answer because not as many people are now going to get tested.

So the cases are down, but the President and the administration had sent out a lot of home tests.

Wade County, I know, has closed a lot of their testing centers and switched several months ago from anybody can drive up to get a test, to you have to make an appointment.

So cases are down, hospitalizations are also down and I think we're in very low transmission.

I know that because my daughter's preschool finally got rid of the masks for the four year olds and the five year olds.

Don't even get me started on that.

But I think, and this may come as a shock to everyone at this table, the White House has a messaging problem.

And the expectation of these vaccines cannot be about transmission.

It can't be about, they reduce transmission.

You're not gonna get sick.

No, it's gonna keep you outta the hospital.

It's gonna keep you out of, it's gonna keep you alive.

- You have the therapeutics.

- You have the therapeutics.

We know a lot more now than we knew then.

We know a lot more about obesity and what that leads to and how many Americans were just inherently unhealthy because we're not eating the right things, we're not exercising.

That's why we're having so much more trouble than some of these other nations.

So all of this plays a part, not just vaccines.

- Nelson, the President wants more money for COVID relief.

- He wants more money and he wants to focus more shots here in the United States.

And that creates a problem globally, 'cause right now globally, statistically 65% of the globe has had at least one shot.

That's 5 billion people.

But 1.25 billion of that are Chinese and they were given an ineffective vaccine like Sinovac.

So, what you're really looking at worldwide is only roughly 50% of the world's population that's been vaccinated with a formula that actually works.

So, these new strains are gonna continue to circle the globe.

We're gonna have, what we need to have, is to set a priority for more shots around the world.

That needs to be one of our focus.

And as you said, Mark, we need to continue to speed up the FDA's approval of antiviral pills, like Pfizer's Paxlovid and other treatments like that.

- The President, they never really talk about therapeutics though, do they?

- No, they haven't focused on that.

and that's where we really need to focus on, because again, basically half the world's population is effectively not vaccinated.

When you look at what's happening in China with the lockdowns, with the COVID zero because they have no effective vaccine there.

Antivirals are gonna be key worldwide to eventually getting ahead of this pandemic and getting beyond it.

And in terms of personal boosters I just recommend everybody consult your physician.

- Okay.

We're gonna move on.

I wanna talk to Jonah about some recent poll numbers with the President and the economy my friend.

- Well, let's just go back to what I mentioned about messaging because politics is about perception and two things can be true at the same time.

Wages for low income workers are up.

Unemployment, historic, right now around 4%.

That's wonderful news.

- Actually 3.7 today.

- 3.7, that's wonderful news.

- Keep you up to date.

- On the other hand, inflation, gas prices, the outlook, the economic outlook, could things change in the future?

Not so good right now.

And that's where the White House is missing their opportunity and why the perception now and polls now coming out, a new ABC news poll and with AP, 70% of Americans are saying that the Biden Administration is mishandling the economy.

And this is when a majority of Americans also do not blame President Biden for high gas prices because they understand what's going on in Ukraine and the connections there.

But when you have higher wages and when you have low unemployment, it still can't make up for the fact if you're spending a lot more money on things that you need every single day in your life for your family.

- Donna, this election I think is gonna come down to groceries and gas.

- I totally agree.

I think that one of the things that Bloomberg did a story this week that said that the average family needs to factor in about $5,200 more this year for their basic expenses.

And that is a lot of money.

It means inflation, as always, hits the poor the hardest.

Inflation is a tax on the poor.

There's no way around that.

And $5,000 is a lot to any family, particularly those who are struggling.

And I think that the messaging, what Joan is saying is correct, messaging is a problem because some of it is that I'm seeing a lot of the White House comments focusing on Russia and Ukraine being responsible for gas prices.

The cutting off Russia, gas and oil that doesn't really take effect until mid-May or June.

So what you're seeing right now at the pump has absolutely nothing to do with Ukraine and Russia.

It's all about policy because when he said that, he said you can keep the contracts you have right now but you can't do any more contracts.

And so that those really don't take effect till May or June.

So we're gonna see a spike even past that once that happens because we get about 8% or so from that area, and that's getting ready to go away.

- Now, a lot of this comes down to the president's energy policy, doesn't it?

He doubled down yesterday on green energy.

And - Well, I think he did.

I mean, we were in a global transition and before the pandemic, before the war, Biden certainly had a lot to deal with, but he is largely a victim of his own policies.

His solutions are driving up inflation, not solving the problem.

The Federal Reserves Inflation Gauge actually hit a 40 year high over the, it was announced this week.

His energy is going to drive prices higher.

And a couple of things that - He's blaming the oil companies now, right.

He's also asking Venezuela and Iran to help us, is that correct?

- Yes and you can't get oil out of Venezuela right now.

And when you do it's way too heavy for what we need to be processing.

We have had a seven, eight year gap in investment in oil and gas production globally.

You just don't go in and turn on a spigot.

We need the investment.

We need a long term commitment to our energy future.

And it has to include, particularly natural gas but oil as well and this impacts food production.

We are moving toward a famine economy with higher prices.

- Let Vickie in here.

Vickie, what are your folks in your district telling you?

- Well, a lot of what we're seeing across the nation and there's a recent poll that was just released that, to your point, his messaging is off because just at the time where he is doubling down on green energy, 62% of those polls say that the way we fight this increased gas price is by producing more gas.

And so that is absolutely to the chagrin of the green energy, but those in my district, especially but according to these results across America, believe that we should increase production of petroleum products.

Not only that, it seems that more Americans are preferring to onshore jobs.

So all of this global economy, there's almost like a snapback approach that's going on now to the opinion that we really need to onshore these factories, jobs, and production of gas.

- Okay, well, I wanna move on.

Let's go to the most underreported story of the week, Donna.

- Yes, so a three judge Superior Court panel, two to one ruled that felons who have not completed their debts to society can vote.

They have to be out of prison, but if they still have some sort of parole or supervised supervision or they have a restitution that's still owed, they can still go register to vote.

So that would have added about 56,000 or so newly released felons onto the voting rolls.

- Jonah?

- At the same time that America and Russia are fighting this proxy war potentially in Ukraine, America is also negotiating with Russia in regards to the Iran deal.

- Actually Russia's negotiating for America.

- It's exhausting to even think about.

The fact is though that you can have these back channels going on in one area, this rivalry going on another area, not to mention Iran is still the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world.

And the discussion now is, well, let's just take off the Iranian Revolutionary Guard from the terrorist list as a carrot.

And what is, what are we trying to accomplish?

- What, where's this leave Israel?

- Where does it leave the free world?

I mean, Iran with is, is again sponsoring terrorism that doesn't just affect Israel and democracy, the only democracy in the Middle East but many of America's allies and American troops who are stationed in the Middle East.

So Iran is no perfect negotiator by any means.

Does a deal just delay the inevitable?

Does a deal make 'em closer to a bomb?

I just, what's underreported is exactly where the negotiations are and just how real this is going to be.

- I think it's a little bizarre.

Vickie?

- Well, recently there's been a national conversation about transgender athletes and female sports and that actually will be coming home to roost in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Athletic Association just recently entered in to a memorandum of understanding with the Board of Education.

Now, this was prompted by some well intended senators like myself and McInniss and Johnson, who took this charge ahead to make sure that this private organization that deals in our public schools has some sort of public input where they did not have one before as evidenced by the 41 million dollars they amassed in assets.

This next week the joint underwriting or the joint staff at the General Assembly are gonna have a meeting to look at this memorandum of understanding.

I'm sure that rule that was passed in October of 2019 may come up during this meeting.

- Nelson?

- The largest drug cartels in the world are on our Southern border and they're growing.

The Sinaloa Cartel is now the largest organized crime group in America but the largest and most violent in the world is Jalisco New Generation.

It's now challenging Sinaloa and other Mexican cartels.

For control of the drug trade and looking to bring their version, their style of violence, north to America.

Last year over 100,000 people died, just of drug overdoses.

We've seen violence increase.

- Primarily from fentanyl.

- That's true, as well as meth and anything they can make a buck on.

We've seen the violence already on the increase in our urban areas, but we are not prepared for this new drug war.

We don't have a national policy to fight it at the level of violence that's gonna be coming this way and as Jonah mentioned, Biden is set to end the Title 42 restrictions on border crossings.

That will likely double the number of people making crossings this year and that will make it far easier for cartel operatives to cross over and come to the United States.

- You know what I see, they have very specific plans, well not plans really, they have armies.

- They have armies.

This is really gonna be the new war and the US Military, we need to be preparing our military.

We may have in engagements in Northern Mexico.

- Okay, let's go to lightning round.

Donna, who's up and who's down this week?

- I gotta say up is kids on their phones.

So there was a Pew study out this week that said 63% of parents say their kids under age 11 are spending significantly more time online, on phones, on tablets, on computers since before the pandemic.

That we've created a new digital generation under 10 or 11 years old, where normally we think teenagers.

They said that they counted that kids under age 11, pick up their phone more than 200 times a day.

Down, Academy Award ratings for sure.

They had the second lowest ratings in the history of the show, up until the whole Chris Rock, Will Smith thing.

- Up Chris Rock's ticket prices.

[all laughing] - Up is terrorism in Israel.

The deadliest week in Israel since 2006 during the Intifada.

And among the 11 people killed by terrorists, two non-Jewish Ukrainians, Arab Israelis and Druze.

So, when we think about Israel and terror, it is not just Jewish victims.

It is an assault on free loving people everywhere.

What's down?

Oh, the pollen, oh, come on.

Does anyone enjoy that here?

I don't think so.

- Vicky, who's up, who's down this week?

- Well, if you're a Ted Budd fan, you're definitely feeling up.

Just the latest polling results came out, that he's at 32%, Pat McCrory at 29% which has been a flip and a change since beginning January Civitas where he was down.

Now the true down is the world economists.

I mean, they're never very happy people anyways but with the war in Ukraine they really are worried about a national debt crisis because emerging nations are taking on this variable rate interest debt.

And as the interest rates climb that's gonna affect their bottom line.

- Nelson, are we gonna see a worldwide recession?

- That is quite possible.

It may or may not affect the United States.

We could be entering some stagflation here.

And into that, what's up is federal spending and new taxes.

President Biden released his proposed budget this week with record new spending in it.

At least nine new entitlement programs, I think I saw, and trillions in new taxes.

Thankfully, Democrat Senator Joe Manchin has already shot down Biden's centerpiece, wealth tax, which would have a real burden on capital in the US, which would be a huge problem.

Down, Biden's wartime trip to Europe which was filled with gas, starting with possible NATO use of chemical weapons.

Then talking about US troops on their way into Ukraine.

And then finally calling for regime change in Russia, which sent chills down the spines of European leaders.

- At this point, don't you think?

- There are a lotta people who are concerned.

This is a national security issue, a lot of folks are saying.

- Right, and people were showing the cards that he's reading.

This is an incredibly dangerous time worldwide, not just in Ukraine and in Russia.

And, you're talking about a power that has 6,000 nuclear warheads.

- Okay, headline next week.

- US Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote for the Supreme Court nominee Jackson and I expect that she'll be confirmed.

- Headline next week.

- Well, it's either gonna be Duke or UNC fighting for a national championship.

So, half the state's gonna be really excited and half the state mourning and the NC state fans saying, "What happened?'

[all laugh] - Predictions, predictions.

- I don't know.

- Headline next week.

- Well, I can predict that in 46 days, we will have a primary election and absentee ballots are already going.

6,400 have been asked for already.

- Quickly, headline next week.

- Russia takes the war to Ukraine's largest port.

- Okay, great job.

My friends, hope to see you next week on Front Row.

Have a great weekend.

[serious music] ♪ - [Narrator] Major funding for Front Row was provided by Robert L. Luddy.

Additional funding provided by Patricia and Koo Yuen through the Yuen Foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

And by.

Funding for the lightning round provided by, Boddie-Noell Foundation, NC Realtors, Mary Louise and John Burress, Rifenburg Construction and Helen Laughery.

A complete list of funders can be found at pbsnc.org /frontrow.

[serious music] ♪