‘Matters of life and death’ The debate at Tuesday’s school board meeting highlights the ongoing cultural wars going on across North Carolina and the nation. It led to state lawmakers adopting the “Parents’ Bill of Rights.” The law’s provisions include barring...
Renee Sekel
North Carolina School Privatizers Are Subverting Democracy
North Carolina was one of the last states to expand Medicaid, delaying for nearly a decade after the federal government made expanded coverage available under the Affordable Care Act. Finally, in 2023, the General Assembly opted North Carolina into the expanded...
Parent’s Bill of Rights moves through legislature
The legislative session in Raleigh is approaching its end, but that doesn’t mean the work of lawmakers is slowing down. Over four months after the State Senate passed the Parent’s Bill of Rights piece of legislation, the House has taken it up. Renee Sekel was at the...
GOP bill to limit topics of discussion in public schools wins state House approval
A controversial bill that would restrict how the state’s public school teachers discuss race, gender and sexuality was approved by the state House by a 68-49 party line vote on Wednesday, and is now headed to the state Senate. Several Democrats from the state’s urban...
Transgender youth: ‘Forced outing’ bills make schools unsafe
When Renee Sekel’s nonbinary teenager first requested a different name on their Christmas stocking, she responded with “absolutely not” in what she now considers “the wrong reaction.” The mother of three and local activist in Cary, North Carolina, said she took about...
It’s Black History Month and NC Republicans Introduced a Bill to Limit Teaching of Black History
Renee Sekel, a Cary mom who works for the NC chapter of Red Wine & Blue, a group that seeks to mobilize suburban moms to get involved in politics, also opposes the bill. “I think most parents—and most kids—want our schools to teach accurate and complete history. ...
Recent Posts
Read This: Get Ready For National News Literacy Week
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Having independent journalists reporting facts and holding people and institutions accountable is a hallmark of our democracy. That’s...
Do This: Name your 2026 Priority
The Heritage Foundation is the extremist architect of Project 2025, and they’ve made their priorities known for 2026. They’ve given us a glimpse at what harmful policies they want the Trump administration to enact this year, so now it’s time to set your priorities,...
Watch This: What You Can Do About Project 2026
About half of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 has been implemented. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed when you see all the ways it’s harming Americans, especially when you see it all in one place (which you can do in our Project 2025 Tracker). And now that...
Read This: What Happens to Project 2025 in 2026?
By now, you’re probably familiar with Project 2025, the extreme-right plan created for Donald Trump by the Heritage Foundation to enact their white Christian Nationalist agenda in all areas of the federal government. We’ve written about it in Easy A before, and we’ve...
Take Our Community Survey
Happy New Year! We’re heading into 2026 with restored energy and big plans, and we want to make sure we’re making Red Wine & Blue even better for YOU! Take our 2025 Community SurveyWhile we’re all ready to move on from last year, please take five minutes (or...