Eye on the Triangle

Jeanine Ikekhua 0:00
The views and opinions expressed during Eye on the Triangle do not represent WKNC or NC State student media. Your dial is currently tuned into Eye on the Triangle on WKNC 88.1 FM HD one. Thanks for listening.

Hi, this is Jeanine Ikekhua and I'm the Public Affairs Director at WKNC radio. And today's episode is going to be weekly news with your favorite Abigail and Avery.

Abigail 0:29
Hello guys. This is Eye on the Triangle. My name is Abigail Ali, and I am the Assistant news editor at technician and I'm here with

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 0:39
Caryl Espinoza Jean, one of the managing editors at technician.

Abigail 0:45
Today, we are bringing you more segments or more tidbits about things going on in the triangle area. We will take turns giving you our little tidbits. And yeah, let's get started. Okay, so my first tidbit this week is about something that I've seen on multiple news platforms, and that is that North Carolina is getting its first car manufacturing company coming to it. The one that will be here is Vinfast, and it will be 30 minutes outside of Raleigh in Chatham County, the manufacturing site will focus on electric vehicles and eventually battery boating. Vinfast we'll be putting in billions of dollars towards the new site and plans to eventually employ over 7000 people. According to news and observer, if the company meets its hiring goals, they will get a state incentives package worth over $800 million over the span of multiple years, as well as local incentives that will take the total of those incentives to almost a billion dollars. I found this to be really interesting, because I was recently listening to a New York Times podcast called The Daily and they were talking about the US as well as other countries taking an interest in cobalt, a material that is used in electric car batteries, among other things that are commonly used by people nowadays. And they also talked about how part of Biden's administrative, one of his programs is pushing for auto companies to come up with more electric vehicles and to distribute charging stations more across the US because they're kind of just congregated around big cities, I'm pretty sure. Basically, they're just trying to make ways for purchasing electric cars more reasonable for people as a way to help the environment. Since listening to that podcast, I have noticed a couple of brands like BMW and Kia advertising their new electric car. So this is a thing that is happening and now North Carolina is putting their take into it. Not only in manufacturing the cars themselves, but also building the batteries, which is, like I said, becoming a big commodity. And it's really interesting.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 3:15
So one question.

Abigail 3:17
Yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 3:17
Um, I don't know exactly how like car manufacturing works, so when you say, like, I guess, like there's a car manufacturing place coming into town, like, do they make like certain models of cars like Toyota's? Or do they do like general parts?

Abigail 3:34
From what I could tell which people should probably fact check this. It seems like they're their own brand, like they're just from a different country, and they are going to be making, they're going to be focusing on making their small SUV model as well as a larger SUV model and electric cars, and that's what I saw in the news and observer article but yeah, I'm not super familiar with the company, Vinfast, but that's what I learned.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 4:03
Interesting. And yeah, I was just gonna add, I think I've been living in the triangle for about five years now. And I've definitely noticed, like an increase in like, electric charging stations for like, electric cars, basically.

Abigail 4:18
Yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 4:19
Yeah, like I remember like when I first arrived here, I think there was like two charging stations in like downtown Whitehorse and others more. Definitely a lot more in like downtown Raleigh, and like the general Raleigh area.

Abigail 4:29
Yeah, and I feel like that was at least from what I've heard from people a big inhibitor about buying electric cars is that if people were to go traveling and stuff, it's kind of hard if you don't know where a charging stations are, and if you might not be guaranteed a charging station. And so having more, I think, makes it more accessible. But I have a question, would you get an electric car?

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 4:53
Oh, that's a that's a great question. I'm not really much like I'm a commuter, like I'll start off by saying that- let me repeat. I'll start off and saying that I'm a commuter, I drive to school and away from school think about 30 minutes every day. So not a terrible drive, but not necessarily the best one. So I've definitely had like a fair bit amount of time my, in my old car, but I don't like driving that much in general. So I've kind of like I don't know, until I have to actually buy a new car, I'll be like, Okay, do I want an electric car or not?

Abigail 5:27
Yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 5:27
I'm not against it, though.

Abigail 5:29
Fair enough. I feel like I'm kind of the same way. I'm like, I'm fine right now. But maybe for the next one.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 5:35
Yeah. So before I get started on my, on my first story for this episode, I got to ask you a question.

Abigail 5:43
Yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 5:44
Are you by any chance like a sports head?

Abigail 5:48
Absolutely not.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 5:49
Thats- neither are mine, but one story that caught my eye was that Duke and UNC their basketball, men's basketball team will play in the Final Four in New Orleans, a lot of news outlets are calling it a historic meeting. Essentially since it's like, is the NCAA it's basically like the big games for like, both of these teams are really good. And yeah, I, I will say that I'm not a huge, a huge, like sports fan, but I do love like, for some reason I love seeing like the UNC Duke rivalry.

Abigail 6:25
Yeah, that's fair.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 6:25
As a state student. I think there's a lot of people who are like, it's like the worst thing ever. Like it's overblown. I think it needs to be, like, I love it. I personally love it. I love seeing the rivalry I love, I love how passionate people get about these games and I love I guess like the after parties and like going to the games and watching the game.

Abigail 6:46
Yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 6:47
So that's what I'm pro Duke UNC rivalry. But essentially, like, both of the teams are like now in New Orleans, according to the news and observer, and then over like, in a few days, they're gonna actually start playing off against each other and it's gonna be pretty historic.

Yeah, I wonder how many North Carolinians are making the trek all the way to New Orleans? That'd be a fun trip. Basketball and New Orleans.

Exactly. Yeah, they're saying like Bourbon Street, which is like the street where you know, like Mardi Gras happens.

Abigail 7:22
Yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 7:22
Everything that's gonna be packed for like this upcoming weekend.

Yeah. Can you imagine people rushing? Bourbon Street instead of rushing, Franklin?

I would absolutely love that. I will say as a person of rushing, Franklin Street experience. Nothing comes.

Abigail 7:38
Yeah. That's what I've heard. My sister went to UNC, and she's, I feel like that's her favorite thing ever is like, rushing, Franklin. That's all she talks about. And so yeah, I feel like rushing Bourbon Street would just be so funny, honestly. Probably a lot of fun.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 7:54
Yeah, but I'm very excited for I guess like few, like this upcoming weekend and see, like, where these teams lead up to? Even if I am an NC State student and I have thoughts about our basketball team. I'll leave it at that.

Abigail 8:09
Fair enough.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 8:10
Fair enough. We'll say so, some background, I guess some background information that the News and Observer has given us that I will like, basically, like, say on air, is that for Duke, if they essentially win this, it'll be like this six national championship, their coach, their coach gets- Coach K, this will be like the sixth national championship like Coach K, will see. And then, if UNC wins, it'll be their seventh NCAA title, and the second in the past five years. That is according to the news and observer. So yeah, pretty big game, not just for like people and like the UNC Duke rivalry but like for their respective sports departments just because it means so much for their players for their coaches. I'm also expecting those tickets to go super expensive.

Abigail 9:06
Oh, yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 9:06
The last UNC Duke game, there was like a thing where like Duke students were paying like 1000s of dollars.

Abigail 9:13
Oh, my God.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 9:14
Like absurdly high amount prices.

Abigail 9:16
Couldn't be me. But hey, it's probably going to be worth it if it's going to be that historical. For my second tidbit, for this week, I will be talking about how, according to the Raleigh city of Raleigh website, CASA, a nonprofit focused on providing permanent affordable housing is planning to build a 100 unit apartment complex, that will be called Kings Ridge. The complex will be designed for people exiting homelessness and with incomes at or below 60% of the area median income. In addition to being an affordable place to live, the complex will also offer a plethora of supportive services including Things from mental health, employment assistance, substance abuse treatment, child care, assistance, and more. I, for one had not heard of the nonprofit, I think it's CASA I couldn't figure out what the letters stand for it C-A-S-A, but apparently they have a few complexes around the triangle area kind of like this, where it's like, people pay what they can based on their income, and they have all these resources that can help them and they have a solid place to live, they don't have to worry about not being able to have somewhere to live. Like, it's a pretty cool thing going on. So yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 9:33
Yeah, I know, like, around the triangle, there's a few like restaurants, where they have that's a similar pay model to that. Like, if you don't have enough money to like, pay for food, and you can get free, and a lot of the their funding comes through, like donations, and like patrons essentially being like, I think this place is cool. I want people to like, come in and like pay what they can to get like a, like a like a meal.

Abigail 11:07
Yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 11:08
Do you know how they're getting their funding?

Abigail 11:11
It looks like it is a lot of donations. And then like the, they have like a monthly subscription thing you can do, and then I think the people that live there do still have to pay something, but they base it off of how much money they're making, not just it's not a set price, it's just what they it's like a third of their income is going to their rent, but what their income is varies. So yeah, I think it's mostly like donations, though.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 11:39
Yeah that's pretty interesting.

Abigail 11:42
Yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 11:42
I don't think it's a very common practice also to like, I guess base like rent off of like, estimated income. Like even in like, like, I'm pretty sure, like, even in like, left leaning countries, like in Europe, outside of Europe. And yeah, basically, like leveling countries like all around the world, they usually tend to have like a, like a stable rent, or like certain neighborhoods, and you kind of like, you pay for your place essentially. Like that even happens in like, left leaning countries. And so I think I think it's pretty interesting seeing like a project like this, where it's like, if we want to make, I guess, like rent accessibility equitable, that's like we're gonna base you know, like, renting the apartment off of like, how much you earn.

Abigail 12:29
Yeah. And I also like, it's permanent housing, like, the people can stay for as long as they want and don't have to worry about being kicked out as long as I guess, as long as they're just like, not being chaotic. But yeah, it's really impressive. And I'm assuming it works, because they have other places around the triangle that are already running, so yeah, it's definitely an interesting thing. I hadn't heard of anybody else doing it either.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 12:56
So this next story is something that was published on technician, NC State's student newspaper. But essentially, there is an organization on campus called We Bleed Red, which, essentially, their goal is to get like women's like menstrual products, or just like menstrual products in general on like, bathrooms so that people can have like access to-

Abigail 13:20
Affordable products?

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 13:21
Yeah, essentially affordable products. Yeah, obviously, you know, like, getting like menstrual products is not like the easiest thing on campus, especially since like, I think the closest might be like the CVS on Hillsborough St, and like for people who don't have a car, which is like a sizable amount of like, the student population, especially for like freshmen, and like sophomores, that's pretty hard to get access, like.

Abigail 13:51
Yeah, and it's kind of depending on where you are at the trek to get to that Target sometimes.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 13:55
Yeah. And that's not even counting like traffic, like, what time you're going and like, obviously, like, as you mentioned, the amount of time. So what this organization is doing is they're trying to get like menstrual products on as many bathrooms as they can. Basically, I think right now the only have like, eight bathrooms across campus that have like free menstrual for products provided by the University, and then they're working on getting more menstrual products across campus.

Abigail 14:24
Yeah. The interesting thing about the We Bleed Red thing was the organization hasn't gotten like, like, they haven't been shouted out for the work that they've been doing for the menstrual initiative across campus, and then like, I know for that article, they had one of the people from maybe Faculty Senate or something, like he's kind of heading up the initiative, I think, and he gave a very vague answer or like reply to the article that they're going to give credit in the future to the organization that did a lot of work. But it's interesting. It'll be interesting to see if they actually do that, which me and some of my friends and stuff have talked about how the initiative alone hasn't been talked about that much. Like they sent out an email, I heard Randy Woodson talk about it in a meeting once, but that was like, just because of technician, otherwise, I wouldn't have heard of it, and yeah, so I don't know. It's interesting.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 15:35
It's a pretty big initiative. And I know, like on social media, like quite a few of the current members have, like, posted about like, how they don't get recognition from like the university.

Abigail 15:46
Yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 15:47
I remember like, there was a social media post by the like, official like NC State account, I think, where they like mentioned, "Hey, we have like, free menstrual products, like these bathrooms, and this is cool", but obviously, like the the organization that was advocating for it for years, because this has been like a thing in the works for years at this point. And it's only really changed because, you know, like, people are now more open to the idea of like, free, like menstrual products should be free and accessible for everyone. And yeah, there's a lot of history like behind this issue. Like just an NC State alone, like a lot of advocacy happening, like, basically for like a little more than a decade, I want to say.

Abigail 16:29
Yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 16:29
Definitely more than a decade. And like people advocating for this should be a thing on campus, and like until very recently, it's actually like a thing.

Abigail 16:38
Yeah you guys should check out the article and look into the history of it, because it's kind of interesting, and it's a little deep. My final tidbit of the week is going to be me babbling on about RAL Today, which is an Instagram news page that gives you information about stuff going on around Raleigh. RAL Today stands out from other news outlets in Raleigh due to its heavy focus on local businesses and happenings around Raleigh in the triangle area. I kind of use it oftentimes for like figuring out where pop up markets are, where new local shops are opening, internship opportunities, restaurants to impress my family with, breweries to go to and other stuff, like, it's just really cool. Their Instagram is also always really super updated. So whenever I need something to do, I just run to their Instagram and see what they've been talking about recently, and it usually gives me a lot of good options. Like sometimes they'll have like, top 10 places in Raleigh to go get coffee, or top 10 places to go do this, like they always have different ways you can get ideas to find something to do or they'll tell you that this organization is having a pop up shop or the New Museum of Art is having an event or whatever. So yeah, if you like Eye on the Triangle, I know you will enjoy RAL Today. So check them out, especially now that spring is here, they are constantly posting because there's so much to do right now in Raleigh.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 18:15
Yeah, I think that's pretty cool. I definitely get your sentiment that there's a lot more to do in like the spring and summer than like the fall and winter. I think fall and winter events only really happening around like seasons.

Yeah, they do.

There's a lot of seasons in like the fall and the spring. Not the fall and spring, fall and winter.

Abigail 18:33
Yeah.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 18:34
Compared to like the spring in the summer. But that's obviously for a reason because they tend to be the more like droopy months.

Abigail 18:39
Yeah. Raleigh is bursting with stuff right now. Raleigh has a lot of outdoor stuff if you guys don't know, but you probably do if you're listening to this, but there's so much to do outside and right now they just everybody's doing stuff. So.

Unknown Speaker 18:54
Alright, so for the last, I guess news tidbit that we have for you guys is a bit of a, not commentary, but it is about politics. So as you all may or may not know, Justice Jackson is going to be voted on very soon on whether she should be in the Supreme Court, and our NC senators have already given their opinions on it, which I think are quite interesting. So Senator Richard Burr announced Thursday that he plans on voting against her confirmation to Supreme Court, mainly over her position on court packing. He says, quote, court packing is a transparent power grab. Justice Ginsburg and Justice Breyer both reject the court packing at the next judge. Justice who joins in the court should do the same. Unfortunately Judge Jackson's answers on the question both in a confirmation hearing and our personal discussion. continue to be unsatisfactory. Another quote from Burr says quote, "While she is undoubtedly highly qualified, knowledgeable and experience, based in our discussion, I cannot support judge Jackson's nomination when it comes for to Senate". And Tom Tillis, essentially mirroring a very similar sentiment about like Justice Jackson says, opinion on like court packing, after like a very long interview process she had in front of like, Congress a few days back. I watched, like, a little bit of it was very intense at times, I will say, that's as far as I will divulge my opinion. And it seems, according to like, political analysts, and it's pretty obvious from the get go that it's going to be a very partisan vote. But she is expected to be confirmed.

Abigail 20:57
Yeah, I haven't done a ton of research on the topic, but what from what I've seen, I don't, nobody's given me a great reason to not support her. So yeah, I find it interesting when I see people say stuff, because it's like, I don't know. I feel like there hasn't been a huge reason so I hope she makes it and she probably will.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 21:20
Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna stray away from voicing my own opinions on it, but it's definitely been a thing on she's already expected to get the thing, so I guess the option here is like whether you agree or disagree with her on like, certain issues regarding- not necessarily like her personal opinions on how specific cases should go about, but her opinions on like the court itself, specifically, like our senator said, like her opinions on like court packing, and like how future decisions about the court should be made by like the public and like the court and the government in general. So I just think that's really interesting, I guess, like the discourse behind this, like Supreme Court scenario. Yeah over the past few years, obviously, we've had a lot of discourse regarding like Supreme Court judges with like Kavanagh, and obviously, like, over the past few years, we've had a lot of, I guess, a lot of public discourses about like certain certain like Supreme Court judges, definitely with Kavanaugh and like, the late 2010s, Amy Coney Barrett last year alone. And obviously like a few other people who are involved in the Supreme Court like Justice Sotomayor and then we've had a lot of, a lot of change in the Supreme Court over the past few years and then like obviously with change in our federal government comes like a lot of discourse surrounding our federal government.

Abigail 22:57
Yeah for sure. Well guys, that is all we have for you. Thanks for joining us again, this is Eye on the Triangle with Abigail and Caryl And we will see you guys next time. Bye.

Jeanine Ikekhua 23:10
Music in this episode has been North Oakland ecstasy squatter be licensed under the YouTube Audio Library. This has been Jeanine Ikhekua for WKNC Radio. Thank you for listening to today's episode. You can listen to more episodes at wknc.org/podcasts and you can also tune in every Sunday at 6pm to hear new episodes from Eye on the Triangle

Transcribed by https://otter.ai