Tuesday, May 01, 2007

The Immigration Debate

I hope you had a chance to see the stories we did on the ongoing immigration debate, in North Carolina.

The debate is two-sided. On one side, there is the local law enforcement agencies that are making a plea to the federal government to deport undocumented immigrants who are committing crimes, and costing taxpayers millions of dollars. However, some say immigrants are just being blamed for problems beyond their control.

Tonight, NBC17 reporter Brian Deroy did a story that looked at the cost of illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, NBC17 reporter Sergio Quintana did a story about immigrants adjusting to life in the United States, and how religion keeps some both strong and hopeful.

See the story here.

I welcome your thoughts and feedback on our coverage.

Jason
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Johnston County Fire Forces Water Restrictions

More than twenty four hours after flames broke out at the Atlantic Scrap and Processing facility, in Smithfield, smoke still fills the air around the site of the fire.

In our morning meeting, there was some great dialogue about this story.

Two questions seemingly came to the front of our conversation. Why, after a fire broke out at this facility less than six months ago, was more not done to prevent this type of fire from happening again? And, who will pay the tab for this fire?

We set course for the day. Our reporters, Shirley Min and Carolyn Costello tag teamed the story to get answers to these and many other questions that we had.

What we found out was that fires like this are not unusual at scrap metal yards, according to Smithfield Fire Chief. Allegedly, the crushing of metal & recyclables can sometimes cause sparks. The fire department says that was the cause of October’s fire & suspect it’s the cause of last night’s fire.

To the question of who will pay? The company will be charged for any additional resources brought in to fight the fire (same as what happened in oct.). The fire chief said the company has been cooperative with the fd in taking preliminary steps towards reducing some of these risks but then yesterdays fire happened.

I am now left with one thought…it is not concerning that this fire has drained the water resources of the county to the point that water restrictions had to be put into place?

Send your comments and thoughts my way.
Meanwhile, here’s today’s webcast.

Jason
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