In 2018, I was an athlete at Track Cycling Worlds in Los Angeles, where the first trans-identified male secured not only a women’s world title, but a women’s world record. As female athletes, we were frustrated that policies we were instructed to trust failed us. We were told not to question them, or to speak...
When the North Carolina House of Representatives approved its state budget plan a few days ago, the proposed pay raises for public employees, tax relief, and policy changes found within the budget bill commanded the lion’s share of public attention. No surprise there. Still, please allow me to offer at least a kitty cat’s share...
Ten years ago, in the summer of 2013, the Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly enacted historic tax reforms. Today, many states are enjoying tax cuts. They are slashing tax rates and moving to simpler structures. But in 2013, North Carolina was just the third state to move to a flat income tax rate structure. At...
Remember the old Mastercard commercials? Flight from Raleigh to Las Vegas: $700 Tickets to Rod Stewart: $300 An invitation to spend the weekend with my son and daughter-in-law: Priceless. My son called a couple of months ago asking if my husband and I wanted to join him and his wife in Las Vegas to see...
It's hard for the public to make fair assessments of conservative education reforms when all they read and hear is misguided spin.
About a month ago, The Atlantic, now a very left-leaning magazine, published a piece by Xochitl Gonzalez titled, “The Librarians Are Not Okay.” The piece, a screed really, was featured in “One Story to Read,” a newsletter that the left-leaning editors there recommend as a “must-read” from The Atlantic. Now, granted, I have written in...
North Carolina has long been a political battleground — but the shape of that battlefield has changed significantly over time. Fifteen years ago, for example, Democrat Mike Easley was completing his last year as our state’s governor. He’d cruised to reelection in 2004 with roughly 56% of the vote. Democrats were firmly in charge of...
As an elected senator, I strongly believe that government transparency is a fundamental pillar of a healthy democracy. Public notices are an essential tool for keeping citizens informed about important government activities and decisions, but the current system of posting them as paid advertisements in newspapers is outdated, costly, and inefficient. That’s why I filed...
