What happens in Washington eventually makes its way to communities in North Carolina – to our schools, our factories, our farms, and our hospitals. And there certainly is a lot happening in Washington these days.
Many people here are thrilled with the actions by the White House and the GOP-controlled Congress, others are terrified by them, and many just feel too overwhelmed and exhausted by the news to keep up. We have friends, family and neighbors in all three camps – and they all have more questions than they have time to find the answers.
That’s why we’re launching Down from DC, a bimonthly newsletter that will guide readers through exactly what our federal officials are doing up there, and how it could impact us, down here.
We’ll analyze what President Trump, Congress and the courts are up to, and explain how it could impact North Carolinians from Murphy to Manteo. And we’ll spotlight the reporting work being done by journalists throughout the state and beyond, shining a light on what these policies will mean and who they will affect most.
Down from DC is written and edited by Phoebe Zerwick and Natalie Jennings, two North Carolina-based journalists. Phoebe spent 20 years as a reporter, editor and columnist at the Winston-Salem Journal and recently retired as the head of the Wake Forest Journalism Program. She is the author of Beyond Innocence, The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt, which took a hard look at the state’s criminal justice system. Natalie covered national politics, Congress and the White House for 15 years at Vox and The Washington Post, and moved to Winston-Salem in 2021. We’re channeling those backgrounds – Phoebe’s covering North Carolina, and Natalie’s covering DC – to explain the things that matter in this moment, with research from three current and former Wake Forest journalism students who all have roots in North Carolina – Andrew Braun, Breanna Laws, and Jack Perez. Our graphic is by designer Cassidy Dupas.
We believe the best journalism helps its audiences make decisions about their lives, inform them about the world, and determine who they want to put in a position to govern them. We will rely on fact-based sources, mostly North Carolina news organizations, large and small, that publish original work. We will also draw on research from nonprofit organizations, academics and government agencies. Finally, we pledge to do our best to put aside our own biases for a newsletter we hope will be of value to readers across the political spectrum.
