- Hi, I'm Marc Rotterman.

Coming up, we'll get the latest on North Carolina's Senate race.

The EPA announces a new Environmental Justice Office in North Carolina and teen suicides continue to surge.

Next.

- [Announcer] Major funding for "Front Row," with Marc Rotterman, 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 Nicholas B. and Lucy Mayo Boddie Foundation, A.E.

Finley Foundation NC Realtors, Rifenburg Construction, Stefan Gleason.

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

[dramatic music] ♪ - Welcome back.

Joining the conversation, Donna King with Carolina Journal, political analyst, Joe Stewart Democratic State Senator Sarah Crawford.

And Travis Fain WRAL.

Joe, why don't we begin with the latest on North Carolina's Senate race?

- Yes, a poll came out this week the John Locke Foundation Civitas survey of North Carolinians, looking at a number of issues including the U.S. Senate race.

Interestingly enough, it shows it more or less to be a dead heat between Ted Budd and Cheri Beasley.

Interestingly enough, Budd though, no longer holds the lead among unaffiliated voters.

He's gone from a plus six to a negative eight which is probably some indication of the overall political landscape of the state.

We see in the generic ballot in this poll relatively speaking, Republicans doing slightly better than Democrats when voters are asked the question, "Irrespective of the candidate, who do you plan to vote for "the Democrat or the Republican?"

And this is really reflective of another poll that came out this week, The Washington Times ABC News Poll that shows- - [Marc] Washington Post.

- I'm sorry the Washington Post ABC Poll showed similarly the generic ballot with Democrats with a slight advantage.

Interestingly enough, this is the thing, I think is most telling in this election cycle.

When asked the question, "How motivated are you "to turn out and vote in this election?"

Democrats report three in four of them highly motivated but eight in 10 Republicans are highly motivated.

And that may be the key issue as we head into the final weeks of this election.

Which of the two parties can keep their voters most enthusiastic and excited about actually turning out.

Now the numbers, the generic ballot and other factors earlier in the election cycle showed a pretty significant favor toward the Republicans.

Leading us all to believe it was gonna be a big red wave.

I think at this point, maybe because of the issue of Roe versus Wade being overturned Democrats have become slightly more engaged.

But another factor in the Washington Post ABC News Poll, is that Democrats are not doing as well among non-white voters as they did in the last midterm election in 2018.

- Travis, what are the issues driving this election?

- I think abortion is a big issue driving the election but of course the economy is probably number one.

I'd put 'em at kind of one, one/A.

One of those two polls.

I remember Dobbs ruling, that's the abortion ruling, 64% opposed it, but 84% called the economy the top issue in their vote for Congress.

So kinda the interplay between those two issues and how the economy goes, I think will really impact congressional elections the most going forward.

But state legislative races, at least I hope people are putting some calculus into this, because abortion policy will be made likely at the state level.

- What what struck me, Donna, is that 34 out of the 55 competitive districts across America running for Congress, Republicans have an edge.

- Right.

That's what the Washington Post Poll did turn out.

When we're looking here we're talking about the generic ballot.

You know, Ted Budd isn't quite performing as highly as that generic ballot if he's still even with Cheri Beasley.

But in the end, if we're talking about issues this is gonna be really about messaging.

Whether the Republicans can convince their base in the electorate, particularly those unaffiliateds that the economy and inflation is a big deal, because to 57% of the people who answered in North Carolina, they say we're headed, 57% think we're headed to a 1930s depression type of recession.

And that's something that's really, really difficult to make that case.

They have to do it if they're gonna get them to the polls.

Now, of course, Democrats have really landed on a keyword that I think we're seeing reflected in these polls and that's extremist, you hear 'em just pounding, pounding, pounding.

Calling Republicans extremists and that word must have polled really well, because I think we're seeing it used effectively in this campaign.

But in the end, 56% of people say it's difficult to buy food.

66% say we're headed in the wrong direction.

- Well, that's a good question, Sarah.

Are Biden's economic policies on the ballot this cycle?

- You know, I certainly think that we can't get away from the fact that Biden is on the ballot this cycle.

But look, this is not news that Biden- - But this is Biden's economy though, isn't it?

It's his policies.

- You know, I think these are policies that he is trying to get us out of.

It's not news that Biden has been an anchor on Democrats all year long.

There's not a Democrat running in the state or really across the country that doesn't know that.

So Democrats are running on local issues and they're trying to tie Republicans to this extremist agenda and they know the assignment.

Republican messaging is on inflation and crime.

Democrats messaging is on abortion.

They understand the assignment.

- Most elections, though Joe, they come down to the economy, don't they?

Kitchen table issues.

- Well, I always like to say voters are always focused on economic issues, unless they're not.

And sometimes there's an international crisis - [Marc] Great quote.

- and that diverts people's attentions and sometimes it's about some other issue that pops up.

Four years ago, the last midterm, it was the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and that suddenly galvanized support among base Republican voters and muted what would otherwise have been a blue wave election.

- But I think the thing that's most telling now is voter interest in actually turning out is really high.

And we're likely to see at least 55% if not 60% of registered voters in this state vote in a midterm election.

- Okay, we need to change gears.

The EPA made a major announcement in North Carolina this week.

Tell us about it Travis.

- Yeah, that's right.

They announced a new multi-billion dollar effort on environmental justice.

Michael Regan, the head of the EPA used to work in Governor Cooper's administration, came down for the announcement.

Now, what is environmental justice?

Well, it's the opposite, quite frankly, of environmental racism.

It's the recognition that race and poverty play and have played a role in where we put things, where landfills go, where pollution is dumped, where chemical plants are built.

And Regan picked Warren County because in the early 1980s, North Carolina discovered that a bunch of people had been dumping oil laced with PCBs, which had already been banned by the federal government along 210 miles of roadway in North Carolina.

This stuff can cause cancer.

And so they scooped up the soil and they decided, well, we're gonna deposit this in Warren County.

And there were protests.

The UNC Library says this is the first time in the US history that people were arrested.

- 1982, the protest.

- 1982, something like 500 people arrested.

UNC Library says this is the first time anybody was arrested for protesting pollution.

Warren County was 64% black at the time.

I don't think that's a surprise to anyone, a 20.

- I think that was standard practice.

- A 2017 study found black Americans nearly four times as likely to die from exposure to pollution than white Americans.

So what Regan came down and announced in Warren County, what they're doing is they're combining several existing offices at the EPA into one office focused on environmental justice that's gonna have 200 employees.

And this is the EPA saying that this is now going to be part of their decision making process.

That environmental justice is elevated as an issue.

There're also gonna be grants.

But here's a quote from Regan.

"When you look at the way EPA does this risk analysis to determine the level of stringency of protecting communities, we will take into account communities and how they have been impacted over time."

I think that's bigger than the money.

- Sarah, jump in here.

- Yeah, this is a really big deal.

It's a really big deal for the country.

It's a really big deal for North Carolina, especially having been announced here.

This continues kind of the long record that North Carolina has had on environmental justice going back 40 years ago.

We have the green governor in our state.

He has put out several executive orders specifically focused on environment and environmental justice and put just a wonderful person, Michael Regan, the first African American at the top of DEQ, underscored by the Bidens administration picking of him to run the EPA.

This is a huge issue for our country.

70% of the most polluted sites in our country are within a one mile radius of federally assisted housing, which we know disproportionately has black and brown residents at a higher rate.

So this is a big deal that our country is focusing on.

- Great comments, Donna.

- So one thing I think EPA, being in research Triangle Park has contaminated buildings all over this region and that's something I'd like to see them focus on as well.

And the other is that $3 billion out of the Inflation Reduction Act, seems a bit a bit elitist because what we're really talking about is cheap land and poor people regardless of their color.

Those people can't feed their kids right now.

Their children are getting an abysmal education.

Their service industry jobs are becoming automated.

They're becoming more and more dependent on the government.

And to spend $3 billion on it right now, when they can put gas in their cars, the EPA needs to get in line behind those people.

- Joe, put this in context.

Wrap it up in about 40 seconds, my friend.

- Yeah, I think this is an issue for which there are strong feelings on both sides and quite frankly, socioeconomics has always been a difficult concept within the way capitalism works.

I mean, parts of the country where things are not as good economically have a tendency to see less investment.

They have a tendency to see less infrastructure.

We need to have a balanced approach.

We need to make sure we don't go too far in the opposite direction.

Discourage the kind of economic activity that would create jobs for people in social economically depressed areas.

But on the other hand, we do need to preserve and protect people's physical wellbeing.

If there is someone doing the wrong thing relative to the environment, it is the right thing to try to stop that.

Okay, Don, I wanna turn to you.

I wanna talk about teen suicides post pandemic.

They're surging.

- Yes.

I mean, the numbers really are staggering.

The Department of North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has been working on this right now.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death in North Carolinians zero to 18 years old.

It's the third leading cause folks 18 to 34.

This is a huge, huge problem in North Carolina and really across the country.

It surged during the pandemic.

There are 11,000 emergency room visits every year by attempted suicide and 3000 hospitalizations.

This is a really big problem that I really could call my underreported because I feel like I'm not seeing as much focus as it really needs to be.

DHHS is setting up an office to really study this, figure out how to intervene, how to provide services and training down at the community level to head this off.

But there are more studies coming out too that show that the relationship between a student and a parent, has a huge impact in how they perceive themselves how they perceive their future opportunities.

So it really needs to be at every level that we're intervening.

But one of the good things, one of the really, positive movements that's happening in this UNC Chapel Hill was just given a gift by a family who lost two children to suicide, $25 million to set up an institute to study - What's happening down in the General Assembly to address this, Sarah?

- Quite frankly, not enough is happening to address this.

I appreciate DHHS really, really taking a look at this issue.

I agree that we need to be doing everything we can, putting all the tools in our toolbox to address this issue.

And it's not just gonna be one thing.

And that's what the department has done.

They have kind of a seven step strategy to tackle this.

But we had some opportunities in the last legislative session to really start to make a dent starting with our schools.

We could fund school nurses and social workers.

Were not doing that.

We have an abysmal problem across the country and in our state.

We should have one school nurse in every single school across the state.

And we have schools that quite frankly, don't have any nurses.

And I would be remiss, if I didn't mention Medicaid expansion.

We know that when people have better access to healthcare, they're more likely to get what they need.

And studies have shown that in states that have expanded Medicaid, the the rate of suicides is actually down.

- Travis.

- This topic makes me think of two words, loneliness and guns.

Look for the lonely people in the world.

Reach out to 'em.

It doesn't take much.

You never know how much, just a text, just a I'm thinking about you, opening yourself up a little bit.

Even if you think it's kind of lame, it can make a difference in people's lives.

Second is guns.

There are more guns than people in this country.

DHHS says there were 1,436 suicides in North Carolina in 2020.

61% involved a firearm.

Firearm sales had gone up, not everyone.

- Has learned how to care for their firearm, how to store it safely.

85% of the people who use a firearm in a suicide attempt die.

- Joe - One of the things that Senator Crawford alludes to that I think is valuable for us to know is the provision of services, of mental health services.

One of the things we saw come about as a result of COVID is telehealth and actually it surged during the worst days of the pandemic and to sort of drop back.

But many healthcare providers and insurers are now trying to figure out how to make telehealth more readily available.

In terms of the provision of mental health services, for some folks who feel a little stigmatized perhaps, by seeking out counseling, this provides a relative level of anonymity to seek the benefit of a counseling conversation.

I think it's important to know we've gone through a very difficult time in our country's history.

A lot of people check down.

- With the shut downs.

- Yes, a lot of people feeling very frustrated.

The US Preventative Services Taskforce of the US Department of Health and Human Services now recommend screening for anxiety among all people under the age of 65 when they're having their annual physical health checkups.

So, I think there is some good news in this.

If we can make the provision of services more widely available, people can get the counseling and support that they need perhaps to prevent the most serious repercussion from depression, and that's suicide.

- Donna, wrap this up in about 40 seconds.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Final thoughts.

- I think it is impossible to understate the impact of shutdowns and closing businesses, closing schools, on the mental health of every age of North Carolinian, but particularly teenagers.

You know, the idea that, you know, we came through this unscathed in terms of their academic performance, their mental health we're gonna be suffering for years to come.

It has to be something we're talking about.

- Okay.

I want to talk to Sarah about the child welfare crisis.

This has been in the news lately.

- Yeah, this is a crisis that, you know, unfortunately it's not really new, but there was a couple of stories, there were a couple of stories this week that with DHHS warning that the state could be sued really at any time for the handling of the foster care system.

So, here's the rundown.

We have about 10 to 11,000 children in the foster care system.

We think that's what we have.

It's a little bit hard to get our arms around that, because we have a fragmented system.

Each of the six LME/MCOs manage their own set of children, meaning that if a child moves from one county to the next, their Medicaid doesn't necessarily follow them and they may not be able to get services.

We have a huge money problem.

We have increased rates for foster families in the state of North Carolina recently, but it's still not enough.

A 2018 study said that our rates should be between 750 and $940.

They're still sitting between 500 and 600.

- Some of these kids are sleeping on the floor in these offices, correct?

- Yeah, that's correct and that's because of all of these other challenges.

So, we have kids sleeping in DSS offices, we have kids sleeping in emergency rooms and we have kids being sent hundreds of miles away from their families, being separated for as long as a year, maybe more in some cases, and quite frankly also going to other states.

So, it's a huge issue.

The state is keenly aware of this issue and has started taking some steps.

- [Marc] Okay.

- In the last session we reformed child welfare, making it easier to place children with relatives and non-relatives and also requiring a review and permanency planning within 90 days of that first disposition.

The state is also committed to creating a statewide system for foster care youth, and there are stakeholders engaged in that discussion for months and we should have a plan soon.

I'm gonna sound like a broken record.

- Quickly, though.

Quickly.

- Yeah, I'm gonna sound like a broken record.

Medicaid expansion would help.

It would give more families more services.

- She's all the message.

[laughing] Donna, go ahead.

- Yeah, I think absolutely this is one of those issues that has, you know, crossed party lines.

Republicans and Democrats are working together on it.

One of the things that we see is that, because of sort of the frantic pace, that when a child is removed from a home, sometimes they can't get a judge to sign off.

So, somebody in the office or an official is signing off, which means that you're not, it's not getting the review process that is legally required.

And, one of the opera, one of the the downfalls of that is kids aren't taken and put with their families or family members.

They're moving their psychiatric care, their medical care.

They're, you know, they're getting double immunized, because they're moving to a different area.

It really, really needs a, you know, top down revamp.

- Joe, we got about one minute.

Give me 30 seconds and I'll go to Travis.

- Yeah, no, I think there's an aspect of this too.

I've served on the board of an organization in Wake County that helps young people emerging from foster care.

And that's the other end of this issue.

A lot of times these young people have gone through a terrible experience, foster parents being very well intended.

They may have been in four or five different foster homes.

- Okay.

- But the needs that they have to become productive, self-reliant adults is also a serious concern.

- Travis, wrap this up.

- I read from the story that we've been talking about.

"North Carolina ranks last among the seven states in the southeast in per child investment in child welfare."

I also wanna shout out to the journalist who wrote that story, Kate Martin, Carolina Public Press.

She's moving into a new role with NBC News.

Look her up, find her, read her stuff.

She picks good topics and those topics lead to change when she covers them.

- Okay, let's go to the most under reported story of the week, Donna.

- Yes, so this was very under reported, because I mean, I didn't hear about it until this morning.

So, it is a remarkable reversal for the Biden administration.

Very quietly on Wednesday, Thursday, they changed the requirements for getting that student loan forgiveness.

So, before, when it first started, you could get forgiveness, you qualified for forgiveness, even if your federally guaranteed loan was held by a private organization.

Not anymore.

As of the 29th, you can only get that forgiveness if it's held by the federal government.

That cuts a lot of people out of it.

You haven't heard much about it.

They did it very quietly with some language on their website, and people may not find out about it 'til, I don't know, after the beginning of November.

- Well, yeah, but it's cost about what, $400 billion the CBO says to forgive all these debts.

- Yes, and the majority are, you know, graduate degrees.

You know, you've got folks who didn't go to college, feeling like they're paying for those who did.

- Might not be polling well.

Joe.

- Yes, just recently, all world leaders from around the world came to the United Nations.

They have this big confab once a year.

They all come and talk.

And interestingly enough, the president of the General Assembly the United Nations, Csaba Kõrösi, said we are entering a new and much more dangerous epoch in the world.

He made the point that the war in Ukraine is just one of 30 armed conflicts currently going on around the world.

And he said, quote, "None of them are improving."

Now also, the UN food chief, that handles issues of famine around the world, David Beasley, said there are 50 million people in the world in 45 different countries that are quote, "Knocking on famine's door."

So, a very dangerous and scary time on the planet right now.

- Sarah, under reported please.

- This week, the Washington Post had an article about AI image creation and DALL-E is the latest technology.

AI image creation isn't new, but the technology has advanced significantly.

And this new software allows people, anybody now, to produce any lifelike photo that they want.

- Which might be cute if you're creating astronauts, playing basketball in space with cats.

I don't know, but not so cute if you're creating images of rioters breaking down the gates of the White House.

This is a relatively unregulated industry.

We already know that you can find almost anything you want on the internet, and now we have a new layer.

You know, a lot of these AI software companies are self regulated, and in fact, one of DALLo•E's rules to their users is to keep things G-rated.

We already know from early reports that that's not happening.

This is gonna be a significant issue that we need to get arms around.

- Well did you see Elon Musk, just a little off topic here, but, or somewhat similar is putting together and rolling out some robots today, human robots.

- Great, what could go wrong?

[all laughing] - Plus, I can think of a lot of bad things that start with the letter G. - Travis.

- The hearings wrapped up Thursday on Duke Energy's new carbon plan.

This is a decade's long plan to shift away from burning coal to produce electricity in North Carolina and in South Carolina.

The question is how much natural gas we move to versus solar or wind.

The NC Utilities Commission will make this decision, set this plan into motion by the end of the year.

Environmentalists feel like we're not going far enough.

Duke Energy wants to rely more on natural gas than they're comfortable with.

This is such an important issue, and the decisions that are gonna be made here are going to impact climate change for the rest of our lives and also what people pay because there are different costs to these different generations decisions.

- So what are the next steps?

- The next step is the Utilities Commission by the end of this year, so by December 31st makes a decision.

- Okay, let's go to the lightning round, Donna.

Who's up and who's down this week?

- Oh, well, actually, it feeds right into what Travis is talking about, environmental spending.

Janet Yellen was in Durham this week at a renewables company talking about $375 billion that's gonna be spent on climate policy.

Of course, at a time when, you know, deficits are soaring, inflation is soaring, people can't, finding it hard to buy food and find affordable housing.

All of things seem to be falling on deaf ears at the White House.

Down, stock market.

Stocks have lost $7.6 trillion since Biden took office.

- A lot of pensions IRAs there, Joe.

- Yeah, up the risk of biological warfare.

The Council on Foreign Relations had a meeting recently where they said the technology and sophistication of many rogue states being able to produce a biological weapon of some sort has increased over the past decade and referred to this as a very dangerous situation for the world.

What a sad show this has turned out to be.

Down, perhaps urban modern architecture in Great Britain with a change in the monarchy.

Prince Charles spoke very derisively of what he considered to be the obliteration of some historic properties in England with modern architecture.

He once referred to the addition to the National Gallery in London as a quote, "Monstrous carbuncle on the face "of a much loved and elegant friend."

So perhaps King Charles will ban any modern architecture in Great Britain.

- Sarah, who's up and who's down this week?

- Up are the number of charging stations needed to meet the state's goal for electric vehicles expected to hit the streets.

A report this week from the Sierra Club and Synapse Energy Economics estimates that North Carolina will need 35,000 more charging stations in the next eight years to support our electric vehicle goals.

What's down is the Iranian government's incredibly poor handling of the uprising led mostly by women in the aftermath of Mahsa Amini's death.

- How do you think the Biden administration's handled that so far?

- You know, I think.

- [Marc] I haven't seen much press on it really.

- Well, oh, on, you know, I have not seen much press on it either.

I, you know, I think that there are statements of solidarity, but there's more to come.

- Okay, my friend.

- Up is Sandy Smith, who's a Republican running for Congress in North Eastern North Carolina.

President former president Donald Trump endorsed her when he visited Wilmington.

A little bit surprising because the demographics of that district indicate she's probably not going to win that race.

Also, she's been accused several times of domestic violence in the past.

I would note the NC Values Coalition released its endorsement list for congressional races this week.

She's one of the few Republicans, not on it.

- You think Trump's endorsements a double edged sword?

- Probably not for Smith, but for other candidates, absolutely.

- Yeah, I mean, so is he a liability in a lot of these races?

- In some races, probably not in that one, but in some cases.

Down Bo Hines in the 13th Congressional District, WRAL in our weekend store, weekend show "On the Record" we've got Bo Hines and Wiley Nickel, the Republican and Democrat running in the 13th.

They're gonna be on the program Saturday night, but Hines wouldn't appear in the same segment as Nickel.

He would not do like a forum or a debate, so we had to shoot separate segments.

- He's endorsed by Trump too as well, right?

- He is indeed.

- Okay, headline next week, Donna?

- Oh, you know what?

We've got so much coming out.

I think the big one though is gonna be the North Carolina Supreme Court is gonna be in Edenton talking about voter ID and North Carolina's District Maps.

- How did that poll, by the way, in your poll?

- Oh, 61% were in favor of voter ID, which is actually higher than the original vote back in 2018.

- Headline next week, my friend?

- Yeah, hurricane Ian brings rain and perhaps a little respite from the campaign season.

- Our thoughts and prayers go to, - Absolutely.

- All those people in Florida.

Headline next week?

- I'm going with my alma mater, Wolf Pack goes 5-0, ending Clemson's undefeated streak at home, moving the pack up to number eight in the rankings.

I hope so.

- You wouldn't wanna put a wager on that, would you?

- I, you know, we'll talk after the show.

- Headline next week?

- Volunteers working in Florida.

I know NC Baptist on Mission already en route to help people affected by hurricane Ian.

- Great job, panel.

That's it for us.

Thanks for watching.

Hope to see you next week on "Front Row."

Have a great weekend.

[dramatic music] ♪ - [Announcer] Major funding for "Front Row" with Marc Rotterman 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 [dramatic music] Funding for the Lightning Round provided by Nicholas B.

And Lucy Mayo Boddie Foundation, A.E.

Finley Foundation NC Realtors, Rifenburg Construction, Stefan Gleason.

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

[dramatic music] ♪