‘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
Do This: Call Your Senators About the SAVE Act
America may have a history of voter suppression, but that doesn’t mean we have to let it continue! It’s up to us to use our voices to speak out against restrictive voter laws and voter suppression tactics, and we have the opportunity to do that right now. Earlier this...
Okay But Why Is Social Security at Risk?
Social Security has been around for nearly a hundred years, and has been life-saving for many Americans. It provides retirement benefits to elderly Americans, unemployment benefits when people lose their jobs, and provides aid to families and people with disabilities. Those are all good things, right? So why would anyone want to get rid of it?
Okay, But Why Are Eggs Still So Expensive?
Have you been wondering why eggs – and pretty much everything else – is so expensive lately? Us too. So we decided to dig into it. It turns out, it’s not all due to the avian flu. And at the same time that prices are at an all time high, the government is cutting funding to critical programs that help families put food on the table.
Okay, But Why Should We Support Ukraine?
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Now, three years later, the war continues and there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight. One of Trump’s campaign promises was that he would end the war, but what does that mean exactly? And who will benefit? What would be the best outcome for Ukrainians and for democracy?
Okay, But Why Are There So Many New Voting Laws?
We’ve all been seeing voting rights in the news a lot lately, with things like the SAVE Act. States have passed nearly 100 restrictive voting laws in the last 10 years. And just this year, President Trump signed an executive order that he claimed to be about protecting the integrity of our elections. “Election integrity” sounds like a good thing, but what happens when we read the fine print? What are these laws really about?