Tag Archive for: #wizsnews

Cooperative Extension With Jamon Glover: Parenting Separately

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Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

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TownTalk: Rep. Sossamon Voices Concerns About ‘Gas Station Heroin’

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N.C. Rep. Frank Sossamon, recently appointed to serve on the House Select Committee on Substance Abuse, said he would like to see the state ban the sale of products that contain tianeptine, which is being referred to as “gas station heroin.”

Sossamon was a guest on Wednesday’s TownTalk and said eight other states have banned the drug and he said North Carolina should join them.

“North Carolina should follow suit,” he said. “The easiest and quickest thing to do is just ban it,” he said.

Tianeptine is not approved for medical use by the Food and Drug Administration, although it is an ingredient in a number of widely available products sold at gas stations and convenience stores as “cognitive enhancers,” according to information on the FDA website.

It is an opioid type drug linked to overdoses and death, Sossamon explained. He said he looks forward to the first meeting of the substance abuse committee, scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 10 a.m. in Raleigh.

He said the committee will hear from experts and others whose loved ones have died from taking the drug. “I don’t know what all we’ll recommend, but I hope it will be effective to protect the citizens of North Carolina.”

The drug is used in other countries to treat depression and anxiety, but in the U.S. it is a Schedule I controlled substance. This means it has a high potential for abuse, Sossamon said.

“When you begin to read some of the material, it’s a no-brainer that it should be banned.”

Whether it should be a permanent ban or just a pause is part of what the committee can determine during its research and investigation into the issue.

The FDA is sometimes slow in taking action to ban something, and that’s why states have taken steps to prevent the products from being sold.

“The drug, evidently, has some positive effects if it’s used properly,” Sossamon noted, but if it is not regulated there’s a greater likelihood for abuse. It can come in pill or powder form and Sossamon said it’s even in a product that looks like a lollipop.

“We’ve got to ban it until we know more about it,” he said. “I don’t want it on my watch that somebody dies when I had a voice and an opportunity to ban it.”

 

 

Home And Garden Show

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On the Home and Garden Show with Vance Co. Cooperative Ext.

  • Get your equipment ready to start seeds indoors, Grow lights, media, starting trays
  • Get a good quality grow light if you will be trying to start seeds indoors.
  • Clean and sharpen your pruning equipment
  • Get ready to prune grapevines.
  • Check your house plants for disease and insects,dust with a soft cloth
  • Treat lawns for broadleaf weeds as soon as weather is favorable.
  • Check stored fruits and vegetables
  • Consider using granular weed preventers in flower, shrub and even vegetable beds.

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TownTalk: NC Insurance Commissioner Discusses Rate Increases

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The proposal to raise homeowners’ insurance rates has been a hot topic of conversation lately for Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, and he wants the people of North Carolina to understand one thing: He’s not the one asking for it.

In fact, Causey said on Tuesday’s TownTalk, he has said “no” to every request brought to him for consideration by the N.C. Rate Bureau, the group that is proposing the rate increase.

Causey is running for a third term as insurance commissioner and has two Republican challengers in the upcoming March primary elections.

Since the announcement was made a couple of weeks ago to raise rates by more than 40 percent, Causey said he and his office have gotten close to 10,000 comments. And, not surprisingly, he noted, those comments overwhelmingly are against a rate hike.

“Everybody’s basically saying the same thing,” he said in comments recorded on Monday for air on Tuesday’s program. Prices have gone up at the grocery store and the gas pump and folks can’t handle a bump in insurance rates.

The most recent rate hike came back in 2020 and after all was said and done, the original proposal of about 22 percent was negotiated down to about 8 percent, Causey said.

The General Assembly established the rate bureau in 1977 and Causey said it has created “a healthy and stable insurance market” for the state since its inception.

There was a public hearing held in Raleigh on Monday – it’s all part of the process in place when a rate hike is proposed. Causey said public comment will be open until Feb. 2.

With thousands of comments already received, Causey said he expects that number to get even  larger.

“It’s a big turnout because it’s such a big request,” he said.

Causey said he wants to bring more insurance companies to North Carolina to create more competition among carriers and to allow customers to shop around for the best rates. What he doesn’t want, however, is for” insurance companies charging us extra to pay their executives more.”

Visit www.ncdoi.gov and click on the link to send your comments about the proposal rate hike.

The Department of Insurance handles all sorts of issues, not just insurance rate hikes. Sharing relevant information to educate the public about insurance issues also is a part of what his department does, too.

“It’s important that people have a local insurance agent,” he said, to make sure you have the right kind of coverage for you or your business.

Those commercials for online agencies may sound tempting, but Causey said nothing can replace that local agent you can phone or visit to get your questions answered.

With a background as an insurance agent himself, Causey said his best tip is to make sure you have replacement value coverage.

“If you don’t have replacement value coverage, you get cash value,” he said. So that expensive furniture that set you back a few thousand dollars a few years ago has now depreciated, so if you submit a claim to replace it, without replacement value coverage, you’re only going to get that depreciated value.

“Replacement value coverage will pay for a brand-new item, regardless of the cost (of the lost item),” Causey said.

Email Causey at mike.causey@ncdoi.gov.

 

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Cooperative Extension: What Works in the Garden

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Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

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TownTalk: Housing And Discrimination

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Finding a new place to live can create all kinds of feelings, from excitement to anxiety. But looking for a new place where you and your family call home should NOT make you feel like you’re being discriminated against.

Hope Williams, supervising attorney with N.C. Legal Aid’s Fair Housing Project, said anyone who feels like they have encountered discrimination during the search for a place to live has some recourse.

The Fair Housing Act became law in 1968, a time when discrimination may have been more blatant. “We are still fighting to stop discrimination in housing,” she said on Monday’s TownTalk, although today’s cases may be more subtle – and perhaps more difficult to prove.

She said her office has three attorneys that serve the whole state. They are able to represent some clients, but they simply don’t have the staff to take on all the cases.

“We talk to people who call us and we give them advice about their legal issues,” she said. They help clients file administrative complaints with the federal Housing and Urban Development agency and with the N.C. Human Relations Commission.

They also focus on community education and training to raise awareness about what discrimination is and what it looks like. For instance, many people wrongly assume that fair housing rules only apply to subsidized housing. Not true. It applies to all housing.

Administrative complaints must be filed within one year of the encounter; there is an option to file a complaint in the courts system, which has a two-year window.

One piece of advice Williams has for anyone who feels that they have been the subject of housing discrimination: document everything.

Looking at interactions and communications over time sometimes can help provide critical evidence. “We make timelines to look for patterns,” she said.

Many complaints come from individuals with disabilities. Landlords must comply with “reasonable accommodations” that allow disabled people access. In such cases, the tenant is responsible for the cost of the accommodation – think wheelchair ramp or other physical structure – and for returning the dwelling to its original state if and when they vacate the dwelling.

The bottom line is a landlord can’t just refuse to allow a reasonable accommodation.

Same thing with a service animal, Williams said. A person who uses a service animal would be responsible for any damage by an animal, but he or she can’t be required to pay an upfront pet fee.

Call the Fair Housing Project’s direct line at N.C. Legal Aid at 855.797.FAIR.

Visit www.fairhousingnc.org to learn more.

 

 

Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland: Invasive Plants

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Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

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