Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/742437
OCTOBER 26 - NOVEMBER 1, 2016 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM North Carolina Senate District 19 Senator Wesley Meredith, Incumbent Antoinette Morris UCW: What is your stance on HB2? My stance on HB2 is it needs to be repealed. This law does not provide any protection for our children from sexual predators. UCW: How can the legislature work to improve the schools? Legislative leaders can improve our schools by invest- ing in our schools, providing increased teacher pay for all teachers, increasing the number of teacher assistants in our schools, increased budget for school books, working to reduce classroom size and provid- ing professional development for teachers. UCW: What, in your opinion, are the top three issues facing North Carolina? And what is your plan to deal with them? Education: Investment in traditional public schools especially by providing stabil- ity to Teacher's Assistants, sufficient classroom supplies and technology and competitive salaries for all our educators. Economy: Many Carolinians are experi- encing some level of financial difficulty. Adjustments to our tax code could enable many of them to have more funds to spend locally, bolstering local businesses and generating revenue in the process. Healthcare: Expansion of Medicaid would be a valuable means of improving the health of our residents. Also, the presence of a pediatric mental health facility in this district would make it easier for our families to access those services. Ensur- ing local facilities are equipped to provide quality support to our large veteran community would honor their service. UCW: Economic Development with the state is of key importance. What ideas can your bring to the table at the legislature to grow business in our state, and in the process benefit the district? We need a marketing campaign that "rebrands" North Carolina with an emphasis that our diverse educational base can support multiple industries. We also need to showcase that as a state, we embrace inclusiveness. This will demonstrate to prospective businesses that all their employees will be productive because they will be content and safe while living in surrounding communities. District 21 Daniel Travieso UCW: What is your stance on HB2? My mother taught me at a very early age which rest- room to use based on my physical gender. Was she be- ing discriminatory? Were your parents being discrimi- natory when they taught you which restroom to use? I don't think so. Folks, this is just common sense and it is ridiculous that we are even having this discussion. North Carolina is a Dillon Rule state and the City of Charlotte overstepped it's authority. The Attorney General failed to do his job and those in the state legis- lature who oppose HB2 should know better. Discrimi- nation means that you have a separate set of rules for a certain set of individuals. So I ask you, how is it discrimination when we say that EVERYONE, regardless of age, race, religion and sexual orientation must use the restroom and locker room of the sex listed on your birth certificate? Some like to state that HB2 resulted in losing jobs in North Carolina. This could not be farther from the truth. The fact of the matter is that more than 70,000 new jobs have been created this year in our state according to the U.S. Department of Labor. But despite the fact that we are not losing jobs like some people like to say, the safety of our children should always be priority #1 and not play second fiddle to the opinions of corporations. UCW: How can the legislature work to improve the schools? Ensuring our kids receive a quality education is very important to me as I have an 8-year old son who is in public school here in Cumberland County. One of the things that concerns me with our school system is how the curriculums seem to be focused on test scores. Classes in the arts, music, shop and other cultural and trade subjects are being eliminated by schools because more and more of the school systems resources are going towards preparing for the tests. There is much more to education than these tests. Election 2016: The Candidates and the Issues by JANICE BURTON Up & Coming Weekly has long made it a pract ice to inform our com- munit y about the elect ions. Again this year, we reached out to the can- didates in our local elect ions to give them an oppor t unit y to make their case to you, the voter. In the follow ing pages, you w ill f ind their responses. You w ill also f ind that not ever y candidate is represented. That was a choice by the candi- date. They were all given the opt ion to par t icipate. Each candidate v y ing for similar of f ice was asked the exact same set of quest ions. We have not altered or amended their answers. Because we believe so st rongly in the priv ilege of vot ing , we wanted to ensure that you have all the informat ion you need — no only about the candidates and the issues — but also about where, when and how you can vote. For Cumberland Count y voters: Early one-stop vot ing is ongoing. Nov. 1 is the deadline to request a mail-in absentee ballot . Request s must be received by the count y elect ions prior to Nov. 1. On Sat urday, Nov. 5, one-stop vot ing and same day regist rat ion ends. Nov. 8 is the big day. Polls open 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. W hat about the new elect ion laws? On July 29, a federal cour t of appeals st ruck dow n prov isions of the Nor th Carolina Voter Law. Here's what you need to k now: • Voters w ill not be required to present a photo ID at the polls. • Prov isional ballot s cast on Elect ion Day out side of a voter 's assigned precinct but inside the voter 's count y of residence w ill count if the voter is eligible to vote in that race. • To avoid vot ing a prov isional ballot, voters must appear at their proper precinct .