Sheriff Charles Blackwood of Orange County North Carolina came to discuss the new jail being built in the area and the systematic improvements that he has experienced over his long career that truly help inmates and community members to be safer.

Sheriff Blackwood, who came to this office in 1980 and worked his way through the ranks in the decades that have followed to become Sheriff in 2014 discussed in detail how the community has changed over those decades - including the affect of social media and smart phones on everyone in our society in the last 10-12 years. He discussed the impact of this change in society has had on his officers. 

Regarding improving prison systems, Sheriff Blackwood shared the differences between a cold release - simply letting an individual go back into the same atmosphere that may have produced crime - and a better system that surrounds an individual with counseling and support with a potential job that could assist him or her into a better environment and better chance at a more positive experience in life. He discussed how this experience had a better chance of making all members of a community safer with less individuals returning to criminal behavior.

Composting Trash...Saves money, makes money and enriches our good earth. Who knew? Rhonda Sherman, Director of the NC State University Compost Learning Lab and world renown expert in composting discusses how composting is now done in individual homes & businesses.

Rhonda defines vermicomposting - one of the most money making new innovations that saves our earth instead of harming it. While poorly conceived human trash continues to destroy our earth's soil, water and resources, seeking new ways to begin processes of transforming the damage done is what we all can do.  Rhonda's decades of work and 20 years of world experience is available for anyone to benefit from here: https://composting.ces.ncsu.edu/about-composting/

Rhonda's book: The Worm Farmer's Handbook details the specifics of vermicomposting. The 20th Annual Vermiculture Conference will be held October 26 & 27 at NC State. See the link above for details of both. 

Is it a crisis - Immigration - or is it normal American experience. Ambassador Michael Cotter (retired) and I discussed the many of the details underneath our Immigration crisis that both political parties seem reticent to even bring up.  

The hidden conflicts embedded within the Immigration of job loss, cultural shift, economic & income inequality seem to lie buried underneath political labels. Does Immigration have racist undertones? Absolutely.  But what about everything else underneath that our political leaders need to be discussing and dealing with. 

From the history of Immigration to present, we discuss current challenges that are not being discussed in our media or by our leaders.

Great Grandson of W.K. Kellogg, Randy Mapes patiently shared with me LIVE his family's famous history of Battles, contentiousness and the legacy of benevolence that influences his life today from his Grandfather Ralph Kellogg. Growing up in the Greatest Generation, Randy's Grandfather learned to look beyond the corporate success of the Kellogg family and reached out to those in his community through the Kellogg Foundation in Brutus, Michigan. 

Randy's patience was on clear evidence in this LIVE interview with me, as I struggled with engineering challenges (while interviewing him). He flawlessly stayed right with me, telling the beautiful stories of his own work to help Veterans in need with medical assistance, do community work, maintain daily faith and carry on the legacy left to him by his Grandfather Ralph Kellogg. He discussed the 6 lessons we can all learn from the Greatest Generation of 1. Personal Responsibility 2. Integrity 3. Humility 4. Work Ethic 5. Financial Prudence and 6. Faithful Commitment.

Our Good Earth & Not So Good Earth series (Part II) continued with Dan Schnitzer, Director of Sustainability for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) in North Carolina. Dan first defined "sustainability" from multiple perspectives - to include a deep analysis & consider of our human sustainability on this planet - regarding how humans have been treating our earth with waste products in the past - and how we hope to better sustain our earth in the future by producing, using, and composting human waste - as opposed to dumping waste into landfills and water systems.

Dan educated me in our interview with the deeper and most innovative methods that are being used to "compost" waste in the CHCCS (school) system - detailing how during the initial implementation of this composting system - the school system had immediately realized a savings in money, resources, energy and time. The composting program virtually paying for itself with a minimal investment.

Dan further provided a deeper understanding of how the sustainability program was needed and used by multiple aspects of this school system from teacher & student lesson plans and educational material to HVAC money saving programs to lawn/grounds maintenance systems.  Dan also educated me on home usage of compostable, recyclable and NON compostable products as well as why a banana thrown in the garbage will STILL remain in the landfill - along with other potentially biodegradable and compostable products - because landfills rob these things of the oxygen needed to break them down.

Season 7 begins with a look at The Good Earth. The Not So Good Earth - examining ways we can transform the damage humans have done for lack of knowing how to better care for our earth.

Alexis Besosa presented an innovative program called "Creation Care" from Christ United Methodist Church based that was being used in Elementary Schools and churches throughout (in this geographic area) to reduce landfill waste and transform "trash" into compostable material. Surprisingly, these programs are saving money and diminishing landfill trash by large percentages (80%+).

Alexis presented that she first was inspired by the Chapel Hill/Carrboro school system which was beginning a sustainability program to compost children's lunches. She decided to present this concept to the Preschool at Christ United Methodist church and with work and acceptance by the Board of Trustees, the Creation Care initiative was formed and is presently finding tremendous support.  She highlighted several other churches, businesses, grocery stores and restaurants in the Chapel Hill, NC area who are also converting to composting waste products.

We discussed how this slow transformation of thinking about trash and disposable items - to composted items - transforms the waste going into the earth's soil, oceans, all water & air - and ultimately - into all humans, plants and animals. I emphasized that this was not a program of blaming or shaming, but of recognizing that humans had not been good stewards of our earth for lack of knowing. We know better now, and must do better. 

Completing June's "The Best of Congressional Representation" with my interview of Graig Meyer (D) of North Carolina's District 50.  Representative Meyer spoke about his large and diverse geographic area of constituency - covering both farming areas and the metropolitan population of Durham. He discussed contemporary issues facing both political perspectives, detailing his approach and leadership objectives. 

I was honored to have as my guest, Representative Amos Quick, III (D) of North Carolina.  Rep. Quick talked at length about the status of the redistricting in NC as our state waits for the Supreme Court to decide whether they will hear a full appeal from NC's GOP of the re-drawn district lines.

Rep. Quick also spoke at length about North Carolina's challenges in education, detailing his goals for improvements. He outlined that the four pillars of his work to encompass: Education, Employment, Environment and Empowerment for the citizens he represents.

Discussing the need to bolster our NC Law Enforcement, he detailed his legislation to support "whistle blowers" within our police departments - protecting them from retaliation. He discussed how greater transparency, training, and awareness of inappropriate policing strengthened good policing and enhanced support for the police from the community.

He discussed the recent controversy surrounding the pipeline, proposed to be built in NC and off shore drilling discussions and how these could potentially impact our water systems and outdoor recreational facilities.  He championed the need to recognize the residents of Stokes County, North Carolina who continue to be forced to purchased bottled water due to the contamination levels in the water supply in this geographic area.

Rep. Quick further presented the need to empower women and all voices within our state who may not be fairly and equally presented and repeatedly acknowledged fellow House Representatives such as Jon Hardister (R), Pricey Harrison (D) and Senator Gladys Robinson who he has worked with to write legislation.  He lauded the need for bi-partisan legislation and team work to fairly and equally represent the people of North Carolina. 

Patrick Morgan and Val Cesanelli discuss the ways in which they assist clients in family & criminal law.  They described how they listen in detail to the needs of their clients, taking into account the "big" picture perspective of the dispute, considering all possible options to address the problem. Their holistic approach to assisting clients (taking into account the budgetary allowances available to those they serve) reveal the caring and depth of expertise these professionals offer to those who seek their advisement. 

From family/domestic cases of divorce, custody and property, Val Cesanelli presented a variety of considerations she uses when meeting with clients. She discussed a couple of unique situations she had addressed in the past (preserving anonymity) and how her own background as a mother assists her in helping others.

Patrick Morgan discussed how he approaches cases of criminal charge and traffic/DWI situations. He and Val presented that their different expertise sometimes benefitted the situations of their clients when cases involved both family and criminal challenges. This practice embodies the best of legal representation for individuals seeking a holistic consideration of justice.

North Carolina Representative Verla Insko (D) began our discussion with the news of Theresa May's (Prime Minister of England) resignation and the influence of Russian meddling on the Brexit conflict that likely forced May from office.  She continued to highlight the European elections in countries such as Germany (Angela Merkel) that have also seen divisions stimulated by far right influence. She noted that these uprisings and resultant problems seem to have been caused by the same social media influence from Russian backed groups seeking to diminish the strengths of democracies world wide.

Representative Insko highlighted many of the specific pieces of legislative work she has participated in writing and fighting for including reforms to early childhood education, fair and equal budgetary allocations for education, medicaid expansion, the light rail in the Triangle of N.C. and the plans to address the deep re-districting challenges that the state of North Carolina has faced over the decades.

She honestly recounted the earliest poor re-districting practices that brought Democrats into the majority during the 1950's & 1960's - broke "norms" that led to the worsening of these same practices (in the decades that followed) by the Republicans - which lead to their super majority in North Carolina. She highlighted how this had hurt the state - as it had robbed the citizenry of healthy debate and bi-partisan legislation. Since 2018, the breaking of the supermajority had at least given the governor veto power to balance some of the legislative work.

Mrs. Insko's extensive knowledge and hard work on issues of national, state, and local interest made for a compelling, informative, and different discussion of the current events and conflicts the country is facing.