captioning sponsored by wnet on >> sreenivasanhis special edition for saturday, august 24: the state of play in t presidential race in north carolina; presidt trumpro arrives in frae for the g7 summit; and in our signature segment, why north carolina rmers are switching from tobacco to hemp. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard d irene schwartz. hthe cheryl andp milstein iii. family. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter, in memory of george o'neil. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided

by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting. a private corporation funded bc the am people. and by contributions to your es station from viewers l you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening,oi and thanks forng us. we're here in charlotte, north carolinahost to next year's republican national convention, which will be held at the spectrum center hind me. president trump carried this state comfortably in 2016, and republicans control both state legislative houses. in a few weeks, voters will turn out fothe state's ninth district congressional seat. that contest maye an early barometer for the 2020 race in this crucial battleground state. we'll have more from north carolina after these headlines.

president trump arrived in france today for the start of the three-day g7 summit. before a dinner tonight with all seven leaders, mr. trump had a one-on-one lunch with french president emmanuel macron. macron said the summit will be ns opportunity to discuss "how to decrease tensnd fix the situation in terms of trade."r afweek of relative calm in hong kong, thousands of anti- government demonstrators resumed protests today reiterating their pro-democracy demands. police fired tear gas into the crowds, who threw molotovs, cocktaricks, and attempted to tear down so-called "smart"os lamp fitted with surveillance cameras. hong kong's chief exutive, carrie lam, wrote on her facebook page today thatis "everyonired" and called for peaceful dialogue. the pro-democracy protesters wed to continue their demonstrations. re chedh on saturday la its latest round of weapons tests. read more atws www.pbs.org/ur.

>> sreenivasan: back in 1990, advisors to late senator jesse helms ran a contversial tv ad injecting race into an already a bitter senate contest. the ad showed a pair of white hands crumpling an employmen rejection letter. the voiceover said, "ty had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota," an issue helms raised cstantly without evidence of any quotas. from an increasing number of reported hate crimes to racist statements by the president himself, race is back in the political spotlight. just recently at a trump rally in north carolina, trump supporters chanted "send her back" in response to the prident's comments about congresswoman ilhan omar. yesterday, i ske with carter wrenn, a long-time republican strategist who once worked on jesse helms' campaign and is now advising garland tucker on his s. senate republican primary run against senator thom tillis. i began by asking why

republicans want to ld their convention here next august. >> i think that's an insider kind of political decision. they think, "well, we should have a convention in a swing state." demographic in north carolina changing to make it a swing state? >> you know, for years, we were basically a state where democrats outnumbered ree.blicans two or three to and that wked out all right for republicans because a lot of conservative democho split a ticket and crossed or. wh's happened in, say, the last ten or 15 years is the number of democrats has dropped and the number of independents has gone up a lot so that today you've got-- thesere approximate-- but 35% of the voters who will vote democrat, 35 who will vote republican, and 30 who were independent, and

they split a ticket. and that demographic just makes this sort of your classic swing state. >> sreenivasan: has race become this cycle?ant this year or in >> it's always important, but... nothing more important. 22% of the registered voters in north carolina. in 2012, they were 22% of the people that voted.d. what happened in '16 was, at the end, african american turnout dropped, and they were 18% of now, that's a huge hit for a democrat. nobably cost hillary clin four points. i think maybe-- this is reading tea leaves-- but maybe one ofde the reasons thcrats are talking so much about race islk they want movate the black vote so that doesn't happen to them again. but is it more important than in the past?

no. >> sreenivasan: given that even those four points of the bck vote mattered, might have tsttered significantly to the success of demochow do republicans reach out and ensure that black voters support them? >> it's very difficult. i mean, if you look at the historical trends, you know, the republicans will get 4% or 5% of the african american vote. now, it's inched up over the years, but it's not something that looks like this is going to be a great breakthrough. if a republican got 15% of the black vote, they'd be tickled to >> sreenivasan: how do you see north carolina going in 2020? >> it could go either way. >> sreenivasan: really >> you know, the way i see it, right w, you know, there's some pollshat show the democrats leading trump by a couple of points. i think that... >> sreenivasan: we're still a

year out. >> i mean, yes, you wouldn't want to get to vegas and make a bet on any of that. i think if the democrats d nominate one of the more leral candidates like warren or sanders, i think trump's got a pretty good chance to win in north caroli. if it's biden, it's a lot tougher race. so, the democrats march lef north carolina is not a terrifically liberal state, so i think that would give a little edge. if they nominate biden, then we'll just havto see. but bottom line for any... any race in north carolina-- statewide now-- either party can win. >> sreenivasan: carter wrenn, thanks so much for joining u >> i'm glad to be with you. re >>ivasan: while the legalization of marijuana across

the united states gets all the attention, there is a close cousin of the plant, hemp, which is having a moment. it's not the fiber of the plant which can be used to make everything from t-shirts to tote bags, but the oil called c.b.d. that canessed from the flower. it is not an f.d.a.-approvedt medication, oponents consider it a panacea for a wide range of ailments. so, it's still labeled a wellness product similar to vitamins.fo what wd on our recent drive through the state is that this new interest in hemp might help save a group of farmers going through a toughtransition. randy edwards has beac harvesting t for 43 years. ever since he was a boy helping out on his dad's farm, tobacco has kept the family farm in business, through blht, droughts, and hurricanes. edwards is pud of the tobacco he grows. >> feel how thick that is. that's the good, north carolina quality of the crop. >> sreenivasan: but this could be one of his last tobacco

harvests. this year, he's growing justis half of what he did three years ago. americans are using less tobacco. that's part of it. nt most of the tobacco gr here is sold overseas. the number one buyer: china. thanks to the strength of the u.s. dollar and the trade war that began last year, china made american tobacco so expensive to buy that it decimated the export market. north carolina, the biggest tobacco-producing state, was hit especially hard. according to t state's farm exported $162 million worth of tobacco to china. in 2018, they sent $4 million worth.at a 98% drop. edwards is one of the few tobacco farmers in his countyen who's ble to survive. >> when i was a young boy, there was 50-60 tobacco farmers in this area. as of today, there's two. two left. >> sreenivasan: the edwards family have been farming for g

foerations, with the next one the way. but to hedge against the unsteadiness, there are now 50 acres of solar fields providing a steady income, and he's trying something new: hemp. marijuana, but it's not. more on th in a bit. why is this a hemp field now? because we've had so ma problems with tobacco the last two or three yearsmeith the gove tariffs, and the u.s. dollar is at an all-time high right now. >> sreenivasan: it's such a new crop that there's a lot to learn. one challenge: keeping male plants out of the fields. a single male plt can spread its pollen over a seven-milese range. >> we've got to go through all the plants and look at the plants. >> sreenivasan: to see if a male one snuck in here. >> it pollinates the rest of the field, and it lowers the quality. >> sreenivasan: and is this fing to be more laboros you? >> much more labor because every one of these right now has got

to be cut by hand and carried to the barns and dried, and then i to gett to the processor. this is very much a test, ongoing test. we're planting all the varieties that we can get our hands on. >> sreenivasan: you're starting over. >> starting over. it's like backing up 100 years. ba time, farmi a lot of it goin to hand. >> sreenivasan: so, you feel like, what, your grandpa, your great-grandpa? en a lot have made that co lately. ( laughs ) >> sreenivasan: edwards isn't the only farmer experimenting with hemp. five years ago, the 2014 farm bill allowedtates to begin growing industrial hemp under "agricultural pilot programs" for research purpose in 2017, north carolina started its hemp pilot program. last december, when president trump signed the 2018 rm bil hemp became a legal agricultural commodity to grow across the country for the first time. that new status has ushered in a flood of industrl hemp growers from north carolina to kentucky to arizona..

>> i've never... i've nevein all my days here on the farm seen anything that was as hot as this hemp production right now. >> sreenivasan: larry wooten is president of the north carolina farm bureau. the state's industrial hemp pilot program began with 100 licensed growers in 2017. >> we have over 1,500 growers that are licensed to grow hemp now inorth carolina, and it's growing every day. that's as many hemp farmers w certified ashave tobacco farmers. >> sreenivasan: an hour south of raleigh, tobacco farmer ryan patterson began growing hemp twr ago. he started with just 300 plants in a greenhouse.r, this ye planted 120 acres. what'd your neighbors think? "he's... he's growing pot"?ve >> yeah,body. i used to be called the 'mato man because i grow greenhouse tomatoes.ry and now, edy calls me the weed man. >> sreenivasan: ( laughs ) >> guess you could be called worse.>> reenivasan: hemp looks and smells like its cousin plant, marijuana, and is also part of the cannabis family. the primary psychodifference:

compound in marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinol, or t.h.c. it what gives people a hig hemp contains t.h.c., too, but in much smaller amounts. under federal law, legal hemp must contain less than 0.3%. recreational marijuana in states like washington contains an average of nearly 20% t.h.c., more than 60 times as much. >> can you see? >> sreenivasan: yeah. franny tacy is a former pharceutical sales rep who says she found her calling in hemp farming. her farms.11 acres of he on >> hemp is the only crop that can feed, clothe, shelter and provide medicine. >> sreenivasan: tacy, who was the first female hemp farmer in north carolina, is breeding hemp plants thave little to no t.h.c. >> legally, what identifies hemp is that it has less than 0.3% t.h.c. >> sreenivasan: instd, she is owing hemp plants to extract a different chemical compound also found in cannabis called

cannabidiol, or c.b.d. tacy sells c.b.d. products from her farm and others at one of her three stores in and ound thashevill >> the tinctures are our number ate selling product. >> sreenivasan: o they do? you do what with this? >> that is taken sublingually, which means under the . >> sreenivasan: she sells lotions to chocolas andes and pre-rolled cigarettes. proponen like tacy say that c.b.d. helps reduce anxiety, depression, slp deprivation. those claims have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration, but that hasn'ta stopped the c.b.d. industry from growing. the c.b.d. market was estimated to be worth $1.9 billion last year and projected to surpass $20 billion by 2024. but tacy says that before that, there needs to be a way to ensure the safety of c.d. products. >> the biggest thing right now: th market isnregulated. regulations are coming. and in an unregulated market,n r the most int thing for a consumer to know is, where did

it come from? >> sreenivasan: r now, the f.d.a. is still setting guidelines for the sale products containing c.b.d. they recently said, t is r currently illegal to put into interstate commerce a food to which c.b.d. has been added, or to market c.b.d. as a dietary supplement."d e agency has sent letters to companies warning them not to sell "unapproved new and misbranded drug products" and not to make "unsubstantiated advertising claims." so far, the f.d.a. has approved only one therapeutic use of c.b.d., as an ingredient in the anti-seizure drug epidiolex, which is used to tre rare pediatric diseases. eaw do you know how people to something that they buy at your store? >> we' not physicians. we're never going to say, "this is how you d." we say, "these are the this is what we find. this is how it's generally taken and consumed."

thers a very fine line there we are here to help people. it is a wellness product. it is not a prescription. >> sreenivasan: besides questions about c.b.d.'s medical benefits, there are also concerns about the accuracy of product labeling. in a 2017 "journal of .e american medical association" study, researchers bought 84 c.b.d. products online and found 70% were mislabeled, containing different amounts of c.b.d. than advertised. tacy allows customers to see lab tests for each of her products by scanninwhat's known as a "quick response code." >> we have q.r. codes that even take you bacto test results for the product we've grown. >> sreenivasan: tobacco-turned- hemp farmers like ryan patterson and randy edwards are well positioned for this new hemp, like tobacconeeds to dry out and cure before being consumed. edwards says he can use the same equipment for hemp that he's used for decades.ar >> the that we're using for tobacco now-- and we've been bafor many years curing too,

but we're going to transition >> sreenivasan: edsays themp. existing barns and drying equipment will save him hundreds of thousands of dollars. afdsr he dries the hemp, edw sellit to a company that extracts oil from the plant. >> we're snding at open book extracts processing plant that's under construction at this moment. >> sreenivasan: calvin whitfield is the director of cultivation at open book extracts, wholesale c.b.d. oil producer. their new processing plant, built on the grounds of a former tobacco warehouse, is one of the biggest in the state whitfield says the investment will pay off. >> we are projected to do $20 million worth business here in our state. nationally, in about 2024, we could be upwards of $20 billion in our country. that's a risk worth taking, to us. >> sreenivasan: randy edwards doesn't know if hemp will solve his problems. because hemp is so new, there's no crop insurance. the best edwards can do? >>e mean, we're already trying d working with sweet potatoes

and produce in small amount, and cows and hay and soybeans and wheat and corn, all the basic stuff. we're trying it all, and we got next door right here, we're going to solar farms.>> reenivasan: so, you're a solar farmer and a hemp farmer? >> we're tryeng to be. >> sasan: what happens if this experiment doesn't work out for you? >> well, we're going to lose a lot of money. that's... that's it. no... no bottom line on that. it's going to be rough. >> this is pbs newshosa weekend, rday. >> sreenivasan: for a look at how demographics in north carolinare changing and how that might impact the 2020 election, i spoke recently with adam hochberg. he's an instructor at the university of north carolina school of media and urnalism and a contributor to public radio's "american homefront" project. we s down at an empty lectur hall at u.n.c. chapel hill. >> well, north carolina is growing. there ara couple cities in

north carolina that are growing hugely. one of them is the raleigh wake county area, and the other is e charlotte area. they're both among the top growing metro areas in the country. and as people are moving in, those areaarare becoming, first, younger; second, more educated because these are, in a lot of cases, highly educated tech jobs that people are coming here to fill and as these areas sprawl magnificently, it's becoming so, when you hear a lot of electoral pundits saying that the election is going to be determined by the suburban mom or the suburban family, we have a lot of those suburbs springing up, you know, seemingly every day in north carolina. >> sreenivasan: there have also hebeen a lot of stories in past couple of years looking ati north caroliunfavorable lirot. and when it comes to w hasvo access tng, how significant is it in northha carolinaeveryone has equal access to go vote?

>> after the 2010 census, that was al the year when republicans took over state legislature r first time in a long time, and theimplemented what is indisputably called extreme gerrymandering, ay? now, the republicans will point out that the democrats were in charge for a long timeand they gerrymandered, too. and they absolutely did. what was different about the 2010 redistricting, 2011tiis redistrictinfirst of all, the technology existed for micro-targeting of populations. so, you can look at district lines. there's now the data on v individuers where you can almost know how every person in every house votes and... >> sreenivasan: so, you can carve a district around these houses. >> you can carve a district around those houses. there is an african erican college campus that's split in half.ob that's a prettous effort to split the black vote so that

african american voters don't have as much power i particular congressional district. in this last election, 2018, you had the majority of voters in north carolina who voted in a congressional election casting their ballots for democrats, and yet republicans won ten of the 13 congressional districts. one of the leaders of that legislative redistricting effort was saying... was asked, "whyde did yogn these maps so that republicans won ten of the 13 districts?" he said, "because we couldn't think of a way for the republicans to w 11 of the 13 districts." >> sreenivasan: so, really, the strategy seems to be as much as turn out your team to make sure whoever you think is on the other team doesn't sw up. >> sure. early voting is another thing orat's been contentious in carolina. there are a number of churches, mainly african american churches, that do voter drives on sunday, after sunday church service. they cl it "souls to the polls."

so, the legislature passed a law that said "no early voting on nday." it had the effect of removing that vehicle to get people to the polls. now... and we have to y, all these things put together, do they make a... a huge impact? probably not. do they affect some votes here and there? yeah.e and with s the margins that we see in north carolina, mae they could make a difference. >> sreenivasanouthat all for special edition of pbs newshour weekend from charlotte, north carolina. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching.oo have anight. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwar. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter, in memorylt of george o'neil. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products.h 's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for

public broadcasting. a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. be more.pb

hello. i'm greg sherwood.re and n northern california we're used to emergencies or every kind. in recent years we've dealt with severe drought and massive fires and we've learned the painful but necessary lessons about how to prepare. but we all know another emergency is coming because major earthquakes that can strike at any time are central to our history. we all know another one will hit, and over the next half hour we're going to look at thend latest sciencexplain how you can be proactive and protect yourself and your loved ones. we're going to be talking with our first guest in a few moments, but first we'd like to invite you to support kqed andp take a big s your emergency planning at the same time. now, we've got two levels for you to consider. so take a look and then make a pledge at kqed.org/donate or give uca