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 at WKNC 88.1 FM HD one. Thanks for listening.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Jeanine Ikekhua and I'm currently the Public Affairs Director. Starting next week, there will actually be a new public affairs director. His name is Brian. But for today's episode, we have two news stories. The first one will be with weekly news with Abigail, Emily and Heidi. And the next one is going to be also more NEWS with Carl, Braden and Anna. We hope you enjoyed today's episode.

Abigail 0:44
Hello, guys, this is Eye on the Triangle. My name is Abigail Ali. I am the news editor now at technician. Usually, Avery Davis is here with me, but she's graduating and if you heard last week's segment, she is not going to be here any longer. And we're super sad, but the good news is today I'm joined with two new new Assistant news editors. And yeah, you want to introduce yourselves.

Heidi 1:14
Hey, I'm Heidi. I'm the new assistant news editor for technician.

Emily Vespa 1:18
I'm Emily. I'm another assistant news editor for technician.

Abigail 1:22
And they're going to be joining us. If you haven't listened to the technician Eye on the Triangle segments, we usually just bring in like three little tidbits each week and talk about what's going on around Raleigh and Durham and nearby places. And we kind of just react to them. So yeah, let's get started. So my first tidbit this week is about triangle Small Business Week. So this event starts on May 1 and goes to May 7, and it is about small businesses that will be hosting cool events throughout the week, they may still be accepting event ideas at the moment. So if you want to submit events for your own business, or if you just want to know about what's going on and join in on the fun, you can add the events to your calendar by going to the website that they have. One thing that I love about Raleigh and working for news at technician and Eye on the Triangle is that I find the coolest small businesses all the time. And my most favorite days are spent running around town checking them all out. So I am so excited for a triangle Small Business Week. And we'll be keeping an eye on these events as they come up.

Emily Vespa 2:39
Yeah, that's actually like really cool. I didn't know they were going to do that. But I feel like it's good. Because like, I'm a freshman. So I don't really like come, I don't I haven't been around like the triangle much. So it's like a good way to like, find things to do and like discover new places. I love doing that.

Abigail 2:55
Yeah exactly.

Heidi 2:56
Do you know any of the specific businesses that are participating?

Abigail 2:59
I didn't look that closely at this schedule yet. I probably should have. Yeah, I'm not sure. From what I saw, it wasn't ones that I usually go to, which is even more exciting. Because like you said, it's a great excuse to just like figure out what's out there. I'm still going to be checking in on it because I really hope some of my favorite stores like edge of urge start participating in it. But we'll see.

Heidi 3:22
That's super exciting, then.

Emily Vespa 3:23
Is it all like restaurants? Or are there just like a ton of different types of small businesses?

Abigail 3:29
I think it's any small businesses like I think one of the rural centers or something had something going on. And that's a rural center, so I don't even know

Emily Vespa 3:37
Yeah that's intriguing.

Heidi 3:40
Okay, so my tidbit was on a North Carolina garden guide that has just been released and the easiest herbs to grow in your windowsill or other indoor spaces the summer, which I thought was a great idea because a lot of us are students and we don't have a lot of room for like full fledged gardens, but we still want to grow plants and that. So according to this garden guide, the three best herbs to grow in North Carolina are basil, cilantro, and dill and all three of these plants will only grow to the extent that their pot allows them so it's super easy to take care of them because they are small, and they all need partial shade. And when you're growing these plants Be careful not to make any common beginner errors. Don't over underwater and start with smaller plants and do not skimp on sunlight. And I also thought this was really cute article because plants make really good decor. And they also can spice up your food or drinks.

Abigail 4:29
Wait That is so cute. I didn't even think about that like having general North Carolina herbs and stuff.

Heidi 4:37
No, it's super helpful because like I'm really bad at taking care of plants. Personally, I kill all mine. So these are really good ones that like are hard to kill. So I thought that was great.

Emily Vespa 4:46
Yeah. I haven't ever tried to like grow a live plant. I always just do fake ones because I really don't trust myself. But I feel like that sounds like pretty, pretty easy if you do it on your windowsill and you don't have to like repot them a lot.

Heidi 4:57
Right? I'm trying to branch out from the fake plants. was like it's really cool to be able to eat what you grow too.

Emily Vespa 5:02
So yeah, I'm sure like imagine like cooking pasta and using that like, that'd be fun.

Abigail 5:07
Yeah facts and you can go to the farmers market and find plants. So true. Yeah.

Heidi 5:12
Also I was gonna mention the other really good place to like get plants is Logan's garden shop. Oh, they have such cute plants and like they have lots of pots and like it's decently priced too. So also local business. Yeah, yeah.

Abigail 5:24
Very nice.

Emily Vespa 5:26
Ok so my first article, well, this isn't really an article, this is just like an ongoing event. But, um, I stumbled across the calendar on the Dorothy Dix Park website, and I didn't realize how many free events they have, which is so nice, because I'm trying to branch out from doing like, hanging out with my friends and just going out to eat all the time, because it's too much money. So they have this series called Get Fixed at Dix's at 6pm a few times a week, and you can do Tai Chi, or yoga and the flower field

Heidi 5:53
Wait...

Emily Vespa 5:54
Yeah and it's completely free. And I thought-

Heidi 5:56
You're kidding.

Emily Vespa 5:57
I know, it's so nice. And especially, like, it's the perfect season to do that right now. Like now is like lighter out. And so like, you know, at 6pm tt's gonna be like, perfect, like, it's gonna be dusk, so it's not gonna be like, super light out, but it'll be like, really nice. And then also, it's just like, great weather. Um, My only reservation is that it's in a flower field. And I feel like I could just see myself like, freaking out because like, bees are like flying around, I just know that what happened to me like, that happened before. And I just feel like, it'd be fun to try. But I'm worried about the bees.

Heidi 6:29
So there's like an instructor and you just show up?

Emily Vespa 6:31
Yeah, I think so. It's all on the website. So if you want to find out more, you can just like check out that it's dorotheadixpark.org/calendar. Or I just, like Googled it.

Heidi 6:41
Yeah.

Emily Vespa 6:41
And it comes up. But yeah, and they have them like all the time. So it's really cool. They have like a ton of options.

Abigail 6:47
That is so cool. I didn't not know Dorothea Dix had that. And I've been dying to go to a yoga class, but they're so expensive. Low key.

Emily Vespa 6:55
Yeah, that's so true.

Abigail 6:56
Oh, my God this is so exciting

Emily Vespa 6:57
Yeah, it's outside too. I like that.

Abigail 6:59
Yeah, that's so nice. So for my second tidbit, I am going to be talking about the Optimist. On April 15, my favorite coffee shop in Raleigh, the Optimist announced that they are going to be hosting a bi-weekly open mic night, starting April 22. The events will be hosted by Neptune's Comedy and will start at 7pm If you don't know what the Optimist is yet, it is like the best coffee shop ever in Raleigh. And it has the cutest drinks all the time. Like, they always do seasonal stuff, like different fruits and stuff like I don't know. And like the coolest combinations of coffee ever. And I don't know, it's always so exciting. And they also have the best food and they also host like so many events all the time. And it's just the best place in the entire world. And I highly recommend it. And so when I saw that they were adding a new event. I was like, oh, yeah, we got to talk about this because it's just I love them so much.

Emily Vespa 7:58
Like, well, I've never heard of them. What's your favorite? What's your like, recommendation for your coffee order?

Abigail 8:03
I like their matcha personally, but also their seasonal coffees are always so good. I've never had anything that's bad there. I don't think

Emily Vespa 8:11
Wow.

Abigail 8:12
Like their food is also insanely good. Which is weird for a coffee shop I feel like

Emily Vespa 8:16
Yeah, do they have like, like lunch food? Or like isn't more of like a bakery.

Abigail 8:20
They have like breakfast foods and then like, lunch sandwiches, I think is more their thing. I've always had stuff that's like on English muffins there. And like it's never missed.

Heidi 8:34
It's also so exciting because open mic nights are so entertaining because it was like people who are so talented that show up and then people who are like completely unhinged.

Emily Vespa 8:43
Yeah, I love it.

Abigail 8:44
And it's gonna be held on their little patio, which is at the back of the restaurant and I don't know, it's so cute.

Emily Vespa 8:50
I need to check that out.

Abigail 8:52
You should I highly recommend.

Heidi 8:54
Okay, so my next little tidbit is on the art to wear show art to wear as a student run fashion show of wearable art created by students. And the final show is taking place in Tally at 7pm. Next Wednesday, so April 27. And designers had to have two outfits back in October to be judged and critiqued by a jury in order to be in the show. And now they have finished collections of about five to seven outfits each. So this is really cool. I think designers are given a theme and they're challenged to show show their own perspective on the theme. This year's theme was dissonance, and there's little sneak peeks of each designer's collection on our tours Instagram and if you go and look at them, they're really cool. So just a shout out a few, Owen Snape's collection is called Patch and he took like thrifted and secondhand materials to make his entire collection which was really cool. And then Shona Royals collection is held Eris after the goddess of chaos. And like if you look at her outfits, they are super chaotic, but also like super well made and beautiful the same and then Nicole Shooman's collection is called SEX. And it looks at society's stigma against dressing outside of gender norms. And there are lots of other collections that kind of, like make social statements using the theme. So I thought that was very cool. And tickets are still on sale for the show if anyone is interested in going.

Emily Vespa 10:16
That's so interesting. I think that's so cool. I like the idea of having a theme. I feel like that is just like a cool way to see everyone's like brain go to different ideas. And like all under one, theme and concepts.

Heidi 10:27
Yeah and if you go and look, look at the previous years online, you can see the theme. And you can see all like the previous designers and what they did. Like every collection is so different so it's interesting to see what each designer comes up with.

Abigail 10:38
Yeah, I watched last year show and like, I covered it for technician, and it was just so exciting to talk to them, like talk to the designers about their like creative processes and stuff like for their collections. And like the products are so impressive for just like college students hand making stuff from like, sometimes raw materials or recycled materials. It's so impressive.

Heidi 11:04
Right, and a lot of the designers aren't from like the textiles college, they're from, like the College of Design, so like they're required to teach themselves how to sew and like do all these things in order to make these outfits so it's super impressive and time consuming.

Emily Vespa 11:16
Yeah, that's really cool. So my next one I thought was a really cute news story. So it's about this like fourth grader from Durham. His name's Frank Dumas um, but he won a trip to Washington DC because he won the Duke regional spelling bee. And so he'd be like, 37 other students. So he's going to represent Durham at the National Spelling Bee on June 2, and he's going to be 1 of 200 students competing. So I thought that was really cool, and like cool to see someone from a local school go. Um, and he's like, super cute. The picture of him on the news and observer website it was just like, so cute. I'm excited for him even though I don't know him. That's a fun experience.

Abigail 11:59
Oh my god, that is so cute. Good for him.

Heidi 12:01
I know. It's so impressive. a spelling bee stressed me out. I could never do that. But watching them blows my mind every time.

Emily Vespa 12:07
Yeah I feel like I would just get so like confused under the pressure of just having to spell it off like the top of my head.

Abigail 12:13
Yeah, I know. Especially as such a like a small person.

Emily Vespa 12:17
They get asked so many like complicated ones. I don't even know if I could do it.

Abigail 12:21
Yeah, for sure. For my last tidbit, we're going to talk about Raleigh Tiny Houses. Coming soon, 4,500 square foot houses are going to be made into a tiny village. Somewhere in Raleigh, I don't remember where exactly, but it's coming. The $5 million project is intended to create a community for people living nomadic lifestyles. The houses will be open floor plans and very modern. The village will have a community mansion also that will have open amenities like workspaces, and just like I guess, like open living rooms and stuff so you don't have to be stuck in a teeny tiny house, you'll have places to go and hang out if you feel a little claustrophobic. According to Ral Today, the prices of living in the houses will begin at $500 a year plus a $1,000 sign-on fee. And tenants can stay from a day up to a year which is like that price is crazy. Like, I wonder if it's even true because like $500 for a year. What?

Emily Vespa 13:33
Yeah, it makes me wonder if like how utilities work, but like if they're paying utilities, I mean maybe it's cheaper because utilities might be cheaper.

Heidi 13:40
Yeah I wonder if they're furnished to or if you have to do it yourself.

Abigail 13:43
Yeah, I'm so intrigued. I want to know so much more.

Emily Vespa 13:46
The community mansion?

Heidi 13:47
Yeah what's in the mansion? I want to know more about that part. Like what's the point we'll be in a tiny house if you have like a little mansion next

Emily Vespa 13:52
Yeah the community mansion is what threw me for a loop.

Abigail 13:56
Especially because they call it a mansion. Like it's just like, because apartments always have like the clubhouse or whatever. It's a mansion like.

Emily Vespa 14:04
Yeah they specify that is funny and it's funny because like, I've heard so much like hype around like the whole like minimalist lifestyle, like just like live a simple life but I feel like that's a little bit negated by having a mansion that you go to like to hang out. I mean, it's nice to have that space but it's also just funny because if you're going for like the simplicity of a tiny house, you could also go to the mansion. It's just a funny like, way to live. I like it though.

Heidi 14:29
That price I might literally move in there because oh my gosh, that's a steal.

Abigail 14:33
I want to see what 40 tiny houses look like all in one little space.

Heidi 14:39
True.

Abigail 14:40
I need to see it.

Emily Vespa 14:41
I feel like that's a good way to solve some of the like Raleigh housing issues, you know, because people always talk about how hard it is to find housing. Like maybe we should just start doing tiny houses instead.

Heidi 14:49
I wonder if students will live in there if it's gonna be like close enough to campus.

Abigail 14:52
I was wondering that too.

Heidi 14:54
Because student housing like the pricing is through the roof right now. So.

Emily Vespa 14:57
I'd be good student housing option

Abigail 15:00
I want to say this. I'm looking at the website and I think it tells where it's supposed to be built? Where did it say? Rock Quarry Rad? I don't really know where that is.

Heidi 15:10
I have no idea.

Abigail 15:11
It's 10 minutes from downtown, but I don't know in which direction? Yeah, that's a good question.

Heidi 15:18
Okay, so my final tidbit is on the interactive Van Gogh exhibit that is coming to Raleigh, so it was expected to open in March, but this is again been pushed back. It was supposed to open April 21, tomorrow, and the organizers said the exhibit will not be ready on that date, so they are going to move it again, they have not announced the new date, though. And according to the organizers of this event, this, the production is extremely complex and complicated, and just has really taken a long time to get set up. So tickets have been on sale since last year, but the location was just announced, and it's going to be at Pleasant Valley just off Glenwood Ave.

Abigail 15:53
Interesting.

Heidi 15:54
Yeah. And the exhibit includes 360 degree projections of two story like projections of Van Gogh's most famous work, which sounds really cool virtual realities, as well as a space for visitors to create their own paintings that they can also project upon the walls. And although no new day has been set, it has really good ratings and sounds like a really cool experience overall. So.

Emily Vespa 16:16
Yeah that's really cool. I know. It was like just in Charlotte, and a lot of my friends went and loved it and like I really wish I could have gotten so maybe I'll, I'll stay in tune to see when it comes to Raleigh, or what date or whatever.

Heidi 16:26
Yeah I'm hoping it opens up soon. Because, yeah, that sounds really cool.

Abigail 16:30
Yeah me and Avery, were talking about it recently. And yeah, I didn't know they pushed it back. And also, I didn't know it was such a process to set everything up. That's really interesting.

Heidi 16:41
I can't figure out why it's such a process, honestly. Because like, you need projectors and you need like the virtual reality like goggle things? So I get like, it's really complicated. But what is taken them so long?

Emily Vespa 16:53
No. Yeah, I wonder. I mean, I'm sure they had to do it in some like big warehouse if it's going to be like two stories. So I wonder like, what they're doing to set that up. It'd be interesting to do like a behind the scenes. I want to know what's going on.

Abigail 17:04
True.

Emily Vespa 17:05
Behind the scenes, and how that works.

Heidi 17:08
Yeah, I'm hoping it opens soon, because I really want to go, so.

Abigail 17:12
Facts

Emily Vespa 17:13
Um, so my final story. It's just a really touching story. It um, it was on the news and observer, I think. And I think you guys probably remember hearing about Ben Derose, who's the NC State senior who was hit by a car, by a driver and killed walking home. But it was like such a tragic story. But they just reported that like, his organs were donated to five people and save their lives, and I thought that was like a really cool way that he's like living on in these people.

Heidi 17:45
Yeah.

Emily Vespa 17:46
And they interviewed one of the organ recipients. And they said he was like, within hours of dying before he got Ben's lungs. And he was like, so excited, because he said, now he can live to see his grandkids. So I thought that was like a really sweet story. And it's amazing that he's like, had such an impact on so many people now.

Heidi 18:03
That is sweet.

Abigail 18:04
Yeah, that is a nice turnaround for such a sad event.

Emily Vespa 18:07
Yeah, it's cool to see like how it's just like, now so many people get to like, appreciate their life because of him.

Abigail 18:15
Aw that's so sweet.

Emily Vespa 18:16
Yeah I just thought it was cute.

Heidi 18:17
Yeah, that's a good turnaround. Yeah, because that was so sad. I still pass by the little memorial and crest sometimes, and it's so heartbreaking.

Emily Vespa 18:24
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 18:25
Well guys that is all we have for you this week. Thanks for joining us. And we will see you next time. Again. I'm here, well I'm Abigail and I'm here with Heidi and Emily. And hopefully we'll start seeing you this summer too. Bye!

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 18:43
You're listening to Eye on the Triangle on WKNC 8.1 FM with your hosts Caryl Espinoza Jaen, one of the managing editors at technician and a DJ at the radio station. Although I will not say my DJ name for anonymity purposes. With me I have...

Graden 19:02
Graden Nol.

Anna 19:03
And Anna Rose.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 19:04
And they are here with me to report on a story they worked on for advanced news and article writing about the recent catalytic converter thefts across the triangle area, and COVID. Yeah, do you want to give me like a little spiel on the story?

Graden 19:24
Yes. So we basically broke down the story into three subsections the first one focusing on COVID-19, and how these deaths kind of coincided with that we would see, you know, COVID surges, and then at the same time or following that a new story pop up somewhere about a bunch of catalytic converter thefts. And then if Rosie wants to take the next one,

Anna 19:46
Yeah, so we have kind of broken the story down into three parts, that being COVID, of course, and then we have kind of media salience, which has been attributed to being part of the reason why we hear so much about these thefts, which includes kind of the wolf alerts that we get through the NC State Emergency messaging system. We spoke with one of the NC State experts on public policy, Dr. Thomas Berkland, who said, you know, a lot of the reason why college students in particular have their converters stolen so often is because a lot of time these cars are sitting kind of dormant in parking spaces for extended periods of time. And also, we're just getting these alerts through wolf alerts, letting us know like, hey, like, just let you know, you know, some more on wolf village catalytic converter has been stolen from my car, along with COVID immediate salents, we are also discussing some of the more recent legislation, including the Clery Act, which does fine and criminalize the thievery of catalytic converters, especially those throughout the triangle. And that was signed in allegedly legislation by Roy Cooper in 2019.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 20:45
Gotcha. What were you able to find in terms of like, you know, like the rates of catalytic converters being like stolen throughout the year?

Anna 20:52
Yeah. So since COVID, and particularly, I believe, in 2021, the statistic was gathered that since the rise of COVID-19, or at least the emergence of it here in the states in March of 2020, catalytic converter, theft rates went up by 325%, which is kind of nuts. And along, you know, with just the general value of catalytic converters on their own, they're also made up of really precious metals like palladium, platinum, rhodium, which have peaked in value, even since with palladium being estimated to go between $74 and $700 per gram. So we found that, you know, with people turning in these catalytic converters, they're getting a lot of cash. And part of the legislation actually cracks down on these kind of scrap yards as well, and junkyards who can accept these catalytic converters, so it definitely puts a penalty on that as well.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 21:43
Were you able to talk to anyone who had their catalytic converter stolen recently?

Anna 21:48
Yeah, so Graden actually spoke to a few people. I spoke to Drum Levesey, who runs the German Orange County Boys and Girls Clubs. And they've had three catalytic converters stolen since 2019. I'm a big story came out in 2020, about a theft that happened to them in 2019, where a bunch of their buses had their catalytic converters stolen, and it was really expensive for them. And they ended up erecting like a 30 foot fence around their parking lot, but they incurred a lot of damages from that. The Durham Bulls, the baseball team ended up doing a fundraising night and help them to get the money to replace all their catalytic converters.

Graden 22:27
Yeah, and we kind of use that to open our story with kind of like a feel good aspect of it, how the community rallied behind them to get them back up and running. I actually talked to the Secretary of White Plains Baptist Church in Mount Airy, North Carolina, she was significant because she was one of nine thefts in the area. This was September of '21, following a record high of COVID cases, but she said her specific case, it wasn't that significant, they were able to get right back on track, because they had an extra bus to rely on that morning, but the bigger thing was that it was one of nine in the area so.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 23:02
Aside from like, the update on the Clery Act doesn't mean like anything that, you know, like authorities or like people have started doing to kind of like, I guess, help, have their catalytic converters not get stolen, if that makes sense?

Anna 23:14
Yeah, so along with the Clery Act, which is a little while ago, it most recently became you know it's obviously main legislation, but it recently became a class one felony, and has a mandatory fine of about $1,000. And that was signed into action September 16 of this past year. And that was primarily sponsored by North Carolina senators Tom McGinnis, Jim Burgeon and David Craven. As far as making it more difficult to steal catalytic converters, the public policy expert, Dr. Thomas berkland, here at NC State, said him and actually a few people on his team are working on a band that makes it a lot more difficult to remove from cars, because it's- I mean, catalytic converters can be removed as easily as like a snip, it's really not difficult to remove them at all, and they're not really that big, so they're easy to carry around. But he said that they are working on a band, which helps to secure them in place and makes it a lot harder to cut through and actually remove them.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 24:11
Gotcha, gotcha. I guess like as COVID cases are going down now, like, what are you seeing in terms of like catalytic converter theft?

Graden 24:17
So we're looking at, you know, what COVID changed with our society. And that was more people working from home. And that meant more cars staying still through long periods of time, and that made more people victim are susceptible to these thefts. So as things started to open up, people started going back to work, cars got back on the road, it made it a lot more difficult. And that's why we see more and more, it's just buses or utility vehicles that are the main victims of this. So the average person as COVID kind of is on its way out is less and less susceptible to these kinds of thefts.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 24:54
Well, is there anything else you guys want to talk to me about in terms of your story or anything like that?

Anna 24:59
Yeah, so I'd say that their estimating that catalytic converter thefts are really, really going to drop in number, because they've now made an automatic service excellence license, which is for mechanics to obtain, under USA automatic the license can be obtained from the National Institute of Service Excellence- and it's a pretty lengthy process. It's about two years on the job training, you must pass the ASE the Automatic Service Excellence certification exam, that actually puts the penalty on on the mechanic who does accept the catalytic converter. And actually we ended up talking to somebody one of the mechanics from a recycling unit around Raleigh, Andrew Sotack and he said the average person was less likely to be successful in selling a catalytic converter to us, even a mechanic has difficulties at times accepting these converters. So with putting, you know more of those hurdles in place for people to both sell the catalytic converters, and for mechanics to accept them, we really think is going to create a dramatic decrease in the amount of, you know, kind of decrease the incentivization behind people stealing converters.

Graden 26:06
Yeah, and on top of that, we kind of discussed in the media salience section that this is proven to be a seasonal issue. Kind of motivated by the the, you know, the economic factors surrounding it, just like gas prices. when gas prices soar, people tend to get more, you know, vigilante or greedy at the pump, so it's really just something that's on its way out.

Caryl Espinoza Jaen 26:30
Well, that's about it. For this episode of Eye on the Triangle. You can listen to this episode Sundays at 6pm or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening.

Jeanine Ikekhua 26:39
Music in this episode has been North Oakland ecstasy Squatterb licensed under the YouTube Audio Library. This has been Jeanine Ikekhua 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