Name: Victims allege toxic water at Camp Lejeune, make case for restitution
Uploaded: 2023-04-05T15:29:00-0400
Duration: 1336569
Description: After a decades-long battle by Marines and their families, the first hearing under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 was held Wednesday to hold the government accountable for the toxic water at Marine Base Camp Lejeune from 1953 to 1987.

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After a decades-long battle by Marines and their families, the first hearing under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 was held Wednesday to hold the government accountable for the toxic water at Marine Base Camp Lejeune from 1953 to 1987.

<p>Yes, Journey in August of 1997. And even then that was 14 years after Janie had been diagnosed and 13 years after she had died, and I hadn't heard anything about the water contamination at Camp Lejeune. And the only reason I found out in 97 was because I retired in the same TV market as Camp Lejeune. And when ATSDR released their public health assessment, it was a news item for that area. And then that evening, all my thoughts had gone to Jamie and that evening when I was out walking and thinking on my farm, I thought, oh my God, What about the 87% of the people that joined the Marine Corps that got out and left and went back home? That was not going to be a news item back there. And those people were over there wondering what happened to them themselves, either them or their family members. So I made it my mission to give them that information at least get it to them. And no, it was kind of, it was almost unbelievable walking into that courtroom today. Advocacy on your end. I want these cases and, and these attorneys, I want the attorneys to cooperate with each other to work toward one common goal and that's justice for the victims, not for themselves. You know, I don't believe that there should be any one law firm in the leadership of these cases. We need a leadership coalition that can work across all of the law firms to help them and consolidate and get this over with. You. Want to share a little bit about your story and how you felt today. My journey with Camp Lajune began 16 years ago. Next month, when I was diagnosed with male breast cancer, I was born aboard the base. I'm one of the Camp Lego babies, but obviously, I'm not a baby anymore. I'm 55 years old and this community has waited a long time. Yeah, we're looking at you at rush hour almost, right? Ok. There's a gap coming. So I'll start over there. I'll just back up a little bit. I'm 55 years old and I'm one of the babies that was born at Lee and this community is agent and we don't have time to sit around and wait while the courts or the Department of Justice and the plain attorneys figure out how they're going to settle it. Walking in here today, 16 years after I got involved in this issue was a welcome beginning, a beginning of the end to paraphrase Winston Churchill. We're at the end of our struggle now and one of the big things that I heard judge ever say was that both sides need to cooperate and that all parties need to cooperate to do what's in the best interests of the marines and their families and the employees that were exposed to the contaminated drinking water at camp. And hopefully we'll see a resolution sooner than later. One of the big points that the judge brought up today, he talked about the Roman empire and how if all these cases have to go through the courts that we will be here about as long as the Roman empire existed before they're all resolved. And then he asked the Department of Justice Representative Adam Bain, how many cases have been settled since the law was signed in August eight months ago? And the response is none. Then he asked him how many had been offered a settlement? It was done. And the judge asked the Department of Justice to take a message back to the Department of the Navy to start getting these claims adjudicated during the administrative process, which, you know, this is part of what needs to happen. I mean, like I said, our community has been waiting decades for a resolution in this and today is the first step in that resolution. What was in your mind? You know, we knew it was, you know, it's kind of like the fire department coming out and saying the house is on fire. That's what the judge's comment was, he pointed out, asked the question and the response was none, we knew that, but now everybody does. So what do you, I mean, obviously you want resolution quickly for police. What do you tell you guys have been very outspoken and on behalf of tens of thousands of people that have filed claims and hundreds here in the eastern part of North Carolina that have filed lawsuits. You know, what do you want to tell them, who might see this? Well, they already, they threw their cards out today and they're drawing the line in the sand on causation. So, but I, There are so many tier one cases, these are cases that have been identified. They are not in dispute of whether or not these chemicals cause those things. Every one of those cases, they could be, every one of those clients, those victims could be offered a settlement right now. But number one, I think the Department of the Navy is reluctant to do that because they don't want to look like, you know, they're guilty by, by making an offer. Yeah, it shows that they're guilty. They're guilty as hell anyhow. So the families that are scared to speak out about, what do you have? Two families that are to speak out about it? Well, I mean, if you remain silent, if you say nothing, then nobody knows. I mean, I didn't get where I was by just being at home and letting Jerry do his own fight and letting other people who were involved, do their own fight. You have to speak up, you have to say what's happened to you. Otherwise no one is going to know over the years. My, my, my testimonies to Congress, every time I would do an interview with the media, they always wanted to hear the story about Jamie. And, you know, it got to the point where, you know, I, I, I never really healed from what the hell she went through and I, I knew that that's what everybody wanted to hear. Uh But it took its toll on me. Um Hopefully, maybe some years down the road, I'll be able to, to heal. That was my next question. Have you healed yet? No, eight months ago, Jerry stood behind President Biden and I was in the audience because they didn't let us all on the stage and we watched President Biden sign the camp of June Justice Act as part of the Pact Act. And it's been eight months since that signature and nothing has happened until today. And one of the other things I was really encouraged to hear was that Judge Devers was getting behind and pushing for this to get moving. So it's not here at the end of the fall of the Roman Empire. All right. Anything else guys? I think that I think we got it. Well, um I'm 16 years. Well, I, I was diagnosed 16 years ago. And I'm currently cancer free. But people ask me that all the time, you don't necessarily cured of cancer because it's always there, that specter is always there that it's going to come back every year. I go through something called scan where I go to the cancer center and they scan and they come and bless me and say, OK, you're fine till the next year. You don't know. And even the treatments, when you're dealing with cancer, the treatments cause damage and alter your life in ways that you don't expect. I mean, yeah, I survived breast cancer but I became diabetic during chemotherapy. I've got all kinds of endocrine issues and everything because of the drugs that they gave me. So you get through all this but it's never really passed you, you just, you endure it one more question though. What would be a settlement that's worth all this trouble? Well, I mean, that's, you know, something that's going to have to be left up to the individual and they only, they know what they've gone through. Uh and you know, Mike, you know, he lost his whole right breast and the whole right chest all the way back underneath his arm. So, and Jamie, she suffered immensely. So, I mean, honestly, there is no amount of money that the government could compensate me to compensate for what I've been through and what my family has been through because cancer just didn't affect me. It affected my Children, it affected my ex wife and there's really no amount that can compensate that. The big thing I would like to see who's responsible for that. The big thing I would like to see out of this in the end is an accountability for the government and especially the Department of Defense and how they treat their service members and their families. So, something like this doesn't happen again. Unfortunately, it has. And that place was Red Hills, Pearl Harbor about two years ago. And we don't want to, we want to see this go away. Ok. Hey, hey, I wanna know, I wanna know something. Who would your mom driving him to? Whatever could that park the car that would have been me and gentlemen, can I get you? Who is that rough crowd? You guys are hanging out with? All right, you guys ready? All right. Go ahead. I'm Thomas Henson, H E N S O N. I'm working with camp jule dot com and I'm Michael Watts M I K A L W att s and I'm working with Tom. And so, you know, first and foremost, let's walk through what happened today, in your opinion. What are next steps here? What's come out of this hearing today? A whole lot of progress is going to come out of this hearing. Judge Dever was very blunt as to eight different topics. The first one was, he was very concerned about timing. He gave the allegory of the length of the Roman empire and it lasted 1900 years. And he said, there's only four judges up here. If we tried one of these cases once a day for the rest of our lives to get to a million cases, it would take like 1900 years. That's not. He made the very common sense argument that Congress intended for most of these cases to settle the administrative process. He asked the Department of Justice point blank, how many of these cases have you settled? And the answer is zero. And he stopped and he paused and he says that is very disappointing and we're going to fix that. And so that was his primary message. And then we went through a lot of different ways in order to create efficiencies in the process. But he very much let everybody know who's in charge and how he's going to lead this litigation. And I think the most important thing that he said is this is about the clients. It's not about the lawyers and all of us got a good talking to and deserved it that we need to put the marines and their families first. We need to give our service to them in exchange for the service they gave to this country. The big take away from me was I've been practicing law in North Carolina for 30 years and judge Dever made it a very ultimate point to say, to remind the lawyers that civility is what's most important and what is definitely expected in his courtroom, in every courtroom in this district and in this state and that civility will ultimately work towards our clients benefits. And today was not about the lawyers of the law firms, it was about our clients, it was about Jerry and Mike and all the other clients and their families. And we all need to remember that. What's the likelihood that the attorneys in the case nominate some form of leadership as he suggested? And, and there would be a form of leadership that sticks and works for this process. I think you've got multiple groups that want to be involved in a leadership way. But I think the very clear message is we need to get together and try to merge forces. And so I put the odds as high. We've all got friends on both sides. There's three or four groups out there, but the bottom line is, is that the message was very well delivered to That the Doj needs to get its house in order and the plaintiffs bar needs to get its house in order. And if we don't, there's going to be orders coming out in the next 30 days because the marines and their families are not going to wait on. What can be a snails pace when lawyers don't act cooperatively with the client's best interests, which is everybody's goal. What's the leverage to get the Navy to actually move to, I mean, on a lot of that it sounded, I was listening to the claims attorneys do. J and the judge, we all kind of on the same page about we need to move forward and get at least a lot of this settled in large groups or in categories of folks that we can push through. But we're not hearing anything from the Navy when we talk to the Navy, we don't hear anything back but they won't discuss the matter. It didn't sound like DOJ is getting a lot out of that. I mean, what's going to get them to move? Well, I do want to be fair to the lawyers for the DOJ. They have met with a number of us. I was with them in Washington DC last Thursday. There's very clearly a process in place, but there's also difficulty doing this before the first hearing because you don't want to jump ahead of your skis in terms of how the courts want it done. But with what the court said today, the, the road map is very clear as to what we ought to get done quickly. And I think that people of good faith on behalf of clients that deserve their best, are going to do their best and this thing is going to get moving in a hurry. It's going to become a rocket docket, which is what it needs to do because our clients, because the exposure was so long ago are up there in age and they can't wait around for lawyers to Dicker around for years and years and years and years. They need their money now and it's our job to get them a fair resolution as quickly as we can. And we're going to do that good question. I wanna ask you guys. What do you think that would be justified? How do you categorize it? How do you put it in? Have you come up with some kind of? Well, I think it depends on the particulars of the case. And judge Dever himself used the example that somebody who happens to hit 30 days of exposure over a 20 year career and a day at a time every other year is going to have a markedly different and less valuable case than somebody who served on that base continuously for 25 years over a career. And so it's very much based on individual facts, but what we're able to do in these, this put together databases which grabs all the particular facts with respect to the plaintiff facts. How long were you there? What were you exposed to? What's the condition you have and what's the epidemiology that you have to tie the two together and you can build grids to resolve these things in an expeditious fashion. And that's what he directed us to do. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you now. All right. Yeah. And so, so for everybody on Zoom. Hi, Robert. This is my phone. Hold on just a moment. All right, Robert. Uh, tell me who, who you want to speak to first because I have an earpiece so that we can do. Uh, yeah, write by folks online. Yeah. So hold, hold on. I need to see to whom because I've got sorry to whom because I have an ear would like to ask questions too. Um, so the attorneys if they could answer and they clarify. Hold on just a moment. Hold on. I can, we can actually, I can just go ahead. All right, let's try it. Can you clarify what you talk about that? Well, I mean, Congress did a great thing here. Right. It was, and I'm sorry to those that served at Camp Lee. It was also a thank you for your service, but no bill is perfect. There was no requirement that once the administrative claim process started that there was a set amount of time to make an offer. It just if you don't get an acceptable offer, you can file suit. That was unfortunate because the DOJ and the federal government certainly has the capacity to evaluate these claims in a timely fashion and attempt to resolve them. That's important because that was Congress's intent. Unfortunately, the law doesn't require that resolution within a certain amount of time. It just gives people like our clients the ability to file a lawsuit and for lack of a leadership with which to negotiate the doj unfortunately, has not made offers to anybody and we hope that will change with today's guidance from Judge Dever any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Thanks roll call. Um Do you have questions? And if so do, who I, I would like to ask the attorney, what was the exact purpose of this was to consolidate? So this was an initial hearing only. This is very typical in federal courts where the federal judges meet the lawyers and give them their views as to where the case is going to go. And the bottom line is is that the judges are going to decide how this case is going to go. And we were all heartened with the very constructive attitude that the court showed. Number one caring about the clients. First, number two, using the Roman Empire example that we can't try these cases one at a time for the next 1900 years, we have to use data and systems to organize these cases into slots so that people can get meaningful and acceptable settlement offers. As the court says, some of these people are going to want to jump off the litigation train and go on with their lives. And so the federal government just can't give out money without substantiation. But there has to be a process put in place with data and with a process that accelerates the settlement process and that's what's happening. What did the judge, your, you, the judge didn't give them a specific time frame, but it was real clear that there are orders coming out forthwith. I suspect that those orders are going, are going to contain some time frames. We don't know what they are yet. But if, what I just saw from Judge Dever is any indication it's going to be sooner rather than later. Ok. So the general issue, that's right. Was there any discussion of any of the specific cases or take that? No, there was no discussion of specific cases today. This was a general informational discussion where the court gave us instructions and thoughts as to the best steps on how to move forward most efficiently. Ok. Yeah, please me. I can't hear that. Yeah. Hold on just a second here. All right. So the question was, were any numbers provided? I'm sorry. Yeah. Uh There was a lot of data provided.</p>

Victims allege toxic water at Camp Lejeune, make case for restitution

Camp Lejeune,North Carolina politics,crime,politics

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Gov. Roy Cooper, museum leaders and museum paleontologist Dr. Lindsay Zanno on Thursday preview Dueling Dinosaurs, a brand new exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. The exhibit opens to the public Saturday.

In that institution's history. But all of you can and I have seen that enthusiasm and that understanding that you are part of something special over the past few years as you have prepared for this day. So to the staff of the museum, thank you. And it's not just staff, a project like this wouldn't have been possible without a lot of important partners on behalf of everyone involved in this immensely successful public private partnership. And in addition to the General Assembly's extraordinary investment, I would like to take a moment to thank some of the very generous supporters of the Dueling Dinosaurs capital campaign, the SECU Foundation, the Bank of America Duke Energy, the North Carolina Glaxo Smith Kline Foundation, Wake County, friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences who really not only helped us in, in raising the funds but also in making this day happen and this opportunity happen. And so many others who are recognized on the campaign do donor wall just to the right of the exhibit entrance. So I encourage you as you go through there today to make sure you take a look at that wall. Now, along with the state's investment. This village of support has enabled the museum to open this new globally unique visitor experience. And on that note, I would like to invite Secu Foundation board chair, Chris Ayers to speak to the foundation's leadership gift, Chris. Thank you. Well, good morning fellow paleontologists. Um I'm excited to be here today representing the SECU Foundation and the over 2.7 million members of state employees credit union who fund that foundation. So this is a great day of celebration for the State of North Carolina, the Department of Cultural and Natural Resources and the many museum supporters and friends who have joined together to make this day a reality. I can tell you the foundation, the State Employees Credit Union has been looking forward to this day for a long time, going all the way back to when we got a sneak peek when they first rolled these fossils into the museum uh a number of years ago. So today's ribbon cutting ceremony shines a brilliant light on the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences as a research institution and the largest museum in the southeast of its kind. The work of the museum professionals and the world class facility benefits more than 1 million visitors each year. And we're delighted to help fund the Secu Dino Lab, which will be enjoyed by students, teachers and families from across the state and beyond. In addition to the SECU Diner lab, the foundation support of the museum also includes the large icon globe that we're in right now that you see outside the building, uh The SECU Daily Planet. As longtime supporters of the museum SECU is pleased that our collaborative efforts help bring the museum and our state to the forefront of natural sciences, education and research, innovative initiatives like this can only be achieved through incredible teamwork and support from the community if it isn't obvious. Let me say that we are so happy to be part of this team and we feel really lucky to have our SECU headquarters and our Sal Salisbury Street branch right next door where we get to see the daily droves of visitors year round. SECU is built on the principle of people helping people and our members live that philosophy through our support of nonprofits that uplift people and communities throughout our great state. For those of you who may not know the SECU foundation is funded through a unique concept known as the power of a dollar where SECU members contribute through the reallocation of their $1 monthly checking account fee. Collectively a dollar truly can make a profound difference. As you see here today, this summer marks the foundation's 20th anniversary. And over the past 20 years, our foundation's commitment to North Carolina nonprofits has surpassed a quarter of a billion dollars for scholarships, grants, financing for education, housing, health care, human services, all benefits to our great state. And we're going to celebrate that 20th anniversary. This fall dueling Dinosaurs is history in the making right here in downtown Raleigh. And we're so lucky to have a front row seat to marvel at the Scientific Discovery and the World of Paleontology. We at the SECU Foundation are honored to be part of this and I want to thank everyone for the great work and contributions that so many of you have made to make this day in this exhibit a reality. Thank you, Chris. Now I mentioned earlier about our staff and they really are all superstars, but there is one particular staff member who has as this project has developed over the recent years, kind of reached celebrity status. If you read Walter magazine, you probably read a profile of her and her work and how that has contributed to uh this particular exhibit. I'm pleased to introduce that person to you this morning. None other than uh the individual who had the vision to make this happen. Doctor Lindsay Zano, head of Paleontology here at the museum, Doctor Doctor Zano. Good morning. It's wonderful to be hosting you all this morning. You know, every week I get an email from a parent who wants their child to meet and talk to a scientist every single week. They want to fuel that child's love for science, encourage them to pursue their dreams. But more than anything they want that science to be real, they want it to be accessible, meeting those Children is wonderful. It's also not enough because not every parent has the resources of the opportunities to reach out to a scientist and arrange a one on one meeting for their child. Most of the Children who are interested in science will fall through the cracks and every public event I attend, I have a conversation with someone in our community who doesn't see the relevance of science to their daily lives who's never been invited to peek behind the proverbial curtain to see who scientists are and what we do and how we go about solving problems that are relevant to our communities. Today, we mark the next step in the evolution of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. We celebrate the opening of the dueling dinosaurs experience. This is one of the most daring public science projects ever imagined at its heart is a world class specimen and the barrier breaking sccu Dino lab that houses it. The specimen represents a single moment in time 67 million years ago when behemoths like tyrannosaurs and triceratops battled for life. The lab is a place where there are no walls between the scientists and the communities that we serve. One where the term behind the scenes loses all of its meaning. A place where every kid regardless of their socioeconomical status can talk to a scientist every day, any day, a place where they can look in the face of a scientist and see themselves staring back at them a place where science is done for the public with the public and transparently in front of the public and for those that cannot make it to us on site, we're broadcasting this project all over the world. Now, the dueling dinosaurs experience is fueled by an amazing team of scientists who I'm so proud of. And in the past two years, we've grown from 6 to 14,000. And that's because a year and a half ago, we launched our public science project Cretaceous Creatures. And already over 14,000 middle school students from around the state have made once in a lifetime scientific discoveries as real members of our scientific team. And we are just getting started. I want to close this morning by thanking the state all of our incredible donors, my amazing museum colleagues, and especially my team for believing in this project, for believing in my vision. I want to thank them for tirelessly working for eight years to bring this project to the people of North Carolina and beyond. You are all dreamers and I could not be more honored to be on this journey with you. One thing we can all agree on is the world loves dinosaurs. So today we're going to bring the next generation of leaders in science and technology and engineering and innovation and have them born right here in North Carolina. Let's show the world how it's done. Thank you. Make sure I didn't mess up the screen and dropping that. Um Thank you, Doctor Zano and I don't know what the acoustics are back there. But standing up here as you were talking about Children in that next generation from up here, you could hear all the Children up there in nature Research Center visiting the labs and it just kind of brought to life. What you're talking about this experience will mean it's now my pleasure to introduce to you, my boss, uh Secretary Reed Wilson. Now I can tell you, Secretary Wilson, this is a special project. He does a lot of openings, ribbon cuttings for our sites all across the state, state parks aquariums and not to play favorites. But I know this one ha holds a special place in his heart. He was telling someone this morning that he's been working on this project for seven years and so Secretary Wilson, I'm pleased to introduce you and we finally got here. Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, everybody. Uh Thank you all for being here this morning and to all involved. Uh Congratulations. This is an amazing huge day for North Carolina and for this museum, you know, making doing dinosaurs a reality has been a collective effort. And I want to thank some people that have already been thanked, but you can never thank these people enough. First, our sponsors, we would not be here today without your generous support. No doubt about that. I also want to thank the board and the staff of the friends of the Museum of Natural Sciences and three of the four board presidents who have been presidents during this period are here with us today. Um, but the whole board has been invested in this and not only did you all raise significant sums of money, but you tiptoed way out on that branch of risk. I remember the conversations. Well, we really sure we wanna do this. Uh But you were, you made the decision to, to just dive in um because you kept your eyes on the prize and, and understood what the risk was, but all that risk went away. Uh I wanna thank the museum staff. Um Thank you so much. I know that every section of this museum has been involved with this. And I, I dare say that there isn't anyone on the staff of this museum who wasn't involved in this project at some point. Um And obviously to Doctor Zano and your paleontology team. Um Y'all are just amazing. You're brilliant. All of you. Um Javin Sutton and your ex exhibition team, Christy Flint and your education team. I mean, I could mention everybody in this museum, everyone's been involved. It's been a long process and you've done a phenomenal job because here we are today and of course, we wouldn't be here without substantial public support. Thank you to members of the General Assembly um who prioritized the investment in this state of the art lab in particular. I do want to thank the leadership of the legislature speaker Moore, Senator Pro TEM Berger, minority leader, blue and minority leader Reeves. Uh, they're unable to join us today, but I think we should give a round of applause to the entire general assembly who supported this project. So it's taken us a while for us to get here today. And as Jeff mentioned, I've been involved with this one probably since the first week I was in this department in early February 2017. Um So it's not been quite 67 million years, but sometimes it felt like it. Um Is that my wife laughing? I remember, I do remember vividly the early Sunday morning in April 2017, almost exactly seven years ago to this day when these specimens arrived. I watched as the movers painstakingly removed them from the tractor trailer truck and carefully moved them into their hidden storage places. It was definitely a goose bumps moment for hours and then we had the groundbreaking in the midst of COVID, uh which complicated everything. And as I said, then at the groundbreaking, when this lab opens, our state will become a must see destination for dinosaur lovers everywhere, from young kids to academics to anybody. Um And so here we are and it's even better than I think any of us dreamed it could be. You will see when you go in there. What a special exhibit this is. We have the best dinosaur specimens in the world and the best setting for people to see them and learn from them. Hundreds of moments and of awe and wonder will unfold in there every single day. And I can't wait to just wander over here sometimes to watch the kids' eyes pop open. Now, at the heart of this project is the science. Our paleontologists will make discoveries as they carefully uncover these and analyze them. Science will be happening in front of the public's eyes. Um And so do doing dinosaurs is an excellent way for the state to engage students in scientist scientific discovery and to develop greater science literacy. So why is that important? Um It's important because the only way we're going to solve our big problems is to rely on the science and the experts who know what they're talking about. And the key to getting to that point is to expand science education to make sure that every child understands the value of science and how scientific discovery works. The Dueling Dinosaurs exhibit is going to pull people into this amazing world of science that's so important to our future. So I am now pleased to introduce a leader who uses science and facts and data to make his decisions as governor of the state of North Carolina and he has supported this project throughout its duration. Everyone please give a warm welcome to our Governor Roy Cooper. Thank you, Secretary Wilson. I'll tell you when we have cabinet meetings every Monday. His is always the coolest report, particularly when we get the updates on the dueling dinosaurs. Uh I am so grateful to everyone who helped to make this happen. The partners. Thank you so much for the work you've done all of the contributors. Uh My family, Chris is proud that our state employees credit union accounts that $1 a month is going to things like this. That is so exciting. And when I think about this week, I spent Monday Earth Day on the Blue Ridge Parkway looking at our amazing vistas uh in Western North Carolina on Tuesday and Wednesday, I got to spend time with North Carolina's own astronaut Christina Cook who set records for time that a woman astronaut spent in space and space walking. And she actually presented us with a lob Lily pine that had been germinated on the moon. Native plant, Karen, first lady made sure it was a native plant, uh excited about planting that in our pine forest at the executive mansion. And she presented us with the North Carolina flag that flew with her on her mission in the International Space Station for 11 months, presenting it to the people of North Carolina. Then I got to come over here with Doctor Zano, doctor Doctor Young and to go through this exhibit and to talk to these scientists and see see these dinosaurs and think about how amazing it was that this was happening right here in North Carolina. You know, North Carolina is the first and best in so many things. Now, we're the best in dinosaurs. I love it. You know, it is amazing and extraordinary that we have the best preserved and most complete tyrannosaur and triceratops in the world. Right here at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Scientists. This exhibit will add to an already excellent rep reputation that North Carolina has as a world class research university community College state. And I'm excited about that. I have been through this exhibit and, and to see the faces of the paleontologist, how excited energetic that they are. And they're also excited and maybe even a little bit nervous about sharing their work as they do it with the world, with the cameras on top of them, with their brushes and their equipment as they make discovery after discovery. And I said, you know, you're gonna get comments and praise and maybe some criticism from science, all scientists all over the world. They said, we know we know and we're ready for that and that's what makes this so special. Uh Doctor Young Doctor Zano, thank you for leading me through. Thank, thank you for the work. I asked Doctor Zano what she was gonna do this summer? She said, Utah, Montana and Mongolia. Wow, that's cool. Bring some stuff back with us uh to, to us but to compete, compete in today's world stem and steam classes. Are more important than ever. And our next generation of leaders will be walking through this museum every day that it's open and this exhibit will stimulate interest in a lot of them. I have declared 2024 as the year of public schools in North Carolina. And I am deeply grateful that the legislature stepped up and invested in this exhibit. Uh It, it took a lot of work to pull everything together and their work was instrumental and I am encouraging them now also to invest more in our public schools in our early childhood education. Our state has a history of investing in public education in order to fuel our innovation and our discovery. And when these young students learn in their school classes and they get to come here and meet face to face with these sci scientists. It's going to develop interest and it's going to create our scientists of the future this state of the art secu diner lab and the dueling dinosaurs belong to the people of North Carolina. It's open to everyone free of charge. That is amazing. Thanks to everybody who made this happen. This is a proud day for the state of North Carolina. Thank you so much. Thank you, Governor Cooper. Uh It truly is an exciting day for all of us and thank you for being here. Now, at this time, I would like to invite everyone to join us just outside the auditorium here. A little bit to the right at the at the entrance for doing dinosaurs for the official ribbon cutting. And I want to invite all of you up there on the 2nd, 3rd floor. Presents. Come on down and join us. So let's go celebrate. Thank you. Yeah, we're at the back line up a little bit. It's gonna be quite a few people here. They are going to be coupled. OK? Don't cut it. Yeah, check, check, get out. OK. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Right. The the face. Thanks this chair, right. You all right. So fantastic. Hey guys for media. We questions afterwards over step on. This is the best to the future. This very good virtually. Yes. Is young. Was it? How about that? This is Yeah, you and then I now make the tea for. Can you be away if you're gonna be here? J JJ? Yeah, I was gonna have how many we have to get here in the morning right here. I didn't see anyone. All right, I need to tell everyone you should never put your hands inside the mouth of a tyrannosaurus. It's very sharp, well done on the end. Just a little bit here. Thank you. All right, just in the position. All right forward. Creep forward. Look for the fray. There we go. 321. Hold on. Is there we go. No cool, cool. The skin is tough. It's a meat eater. Not a ribbon eater. So OK. Sorry. OK. Barry can we do one more second? Let me fill in real quickly with one more. Yeah, they have thank you. Who gets to keep this to bring here? Let's get next to a do what you want us here. That be perfect. And can I get you on? So right here, you know what the secret with you and, but yeah, one photo, 12 and three. All right, thanks everybody. Right. If we have five, hello, if you guys want to come over here, I'll stand where the governor is gonna be. I.

Preview of Dueling Dinos, opening Saturday in Raleigh

Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday Powerball drawings, as shown live on WRAL.

Ball. Good evening, Ruan, I Randy trainer. Tonight. We have another life changing jackpot. It's worth an estimated $130.2 million. So, get your tickets ready here. Come, tonight's winning numbers. Let's start things off this evening with the number 26. Right after that America. We have the number two and congratulations to Gina Magnum from North Carolina. She won $50,000 playing powerball. All right, the rest of your winning numbers tonight 20 47. And let's round it out tonight with the number 22 and tonight 20 powerball number, that's gonna be 21 and your power play multiplayer is four. Let's take another look at tonight's winning numbers. We'll see you back here on Saturday night. It's time to play America's favorite.

Powerball Drawing

Brian Shrader flies over the site of a plane crash at Raleigh-Durham International Airport approximately three hours after the accident.

Seen some activity just in the past 10 minutes or so. I want to take you outside Sky five right now for a live look at the scene. We saw a van being escorted to the runway there and someone got out and now there appears to be a really careful inspection of the debris going on. So we're working to confirm if that may be the NTSB investigation team arriving at the scene. Let's zoom out and give you some about where this is. There are two main runways at RDU International and this is in the grassy field next to the runway that mostly serves terminal one on the east side of the airport, that runway remains closed while this investigation continues at the top of your screen. That is the other main runway that serves terminal two, mostly that runway is open. So we have two things going on here that could affect your flights for the rest of the day and maybe even into tomorrow, the airport takeoff and landing capacity is roughly reduced by half because they are only working with one runway. And if you have a flight coming out of terminal one, maybe Southwest, you're going to have to take that crossover all the way out to that other runway. It's going to add a lot of extra time.

Sky 5 flies over RDU plane crash 3 hours later 

A UNC Health physician and pilot were taken to the hospital Wednesday after a small plane crashed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU).


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