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Last August, North Carolina’s House debated for only four minutes before casting a final vote to restrict medical treatment for transgender youth. The Senate followed suit two hours later.

Ten miles away, a 15-year-old theater kid named Leo was preparing for a sleepover with his best friend. Neither he nor his parents were aware of the vote, or of how it would alter the course of his medical care.

But his endocrinologist, Deanna Adkins, knew it would immediately change the way she and her team practiced medicine. Adkin, the co-founder and director the Duke Child and Adolescent Gender Care Clinic, had been bracing for the legislature to outlaw much of her work–part of a wave of anti-transgender rights legislation sweeping the nation.

In story published with Harvard Public Health, Barry Yeoman looks at the year since the upending of gender-affirm care for kids in the state.

Transition of Care

After last year’s passage of legislation restricting medical treatment for transgender youth, North Carolina families seeking care for their children are looking across state lines.

“What are we doing here?” Dane Whicker, a Duke University clinical health psychologist, recalls thinking. “Especially after so many years, where we’re building the evidence base, we’re growing as a field, the research is there. And then all of a sudden, it’s like going back into the Dark Ages.” 

Have a news tip for our team? You can reach us at scoops@theassemblync.com.

Ferry Tales

The system that shuttles residents and visitors to and from the offshore enclave of Bald Head Island is currently up for grabs.

Among the leading contenders to buy the ferry system is the Raleigh-based private equity firm SharpVue Capital–a company co-founded by Lee Roberts, who was recently named UNC-Chapel Hill’s new permanent chancellor.

Clinching that job means Roberts will step down from SharpVue, but the contention over who should own the keys to the island retreat remains.

Bald Head Island leaders argue that the motivations of profit-driven outsiders are incompatible with long-term stability. SharpVue says the village government has been an obstructive force, and is wasting taxpayer money in pursuit of owning a system it can’t realistically afford or manage. 

As Johanna Still reports, Roberts’ handling of the ferry deal is emblematic of his operating style: analytical and understated, patient and persistent, with an unflinching eye on long-term success.

Lee Roberts’ Island Dreams

Before he was named chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill, Lee Roberts waded into a different political storm: the future of Bald Head Island’s ferry system.

Behind the Scenes

Ren Larson’s story last week on the $55 million state allocation to the U.S. Performance Center has made waves in Charlotte, Raleigh, and beyond.

The funds for both the private business and its nonprofit arm were added to budgets with little scrutiny or debate. Some of it’s been spent on things like stays at the Ritz Carlton, vehicle loans, and entertainment, as the N&O noted in their story on the center.

We asked Ren a few questions about her reporting and what else she’s learned in the last week.

What put you on to this story in the first place?

We got a tip that the legislature spent a lot of money to bring Olympic teams to the Charlotte area, and we should look into it. Knowing that my editor, John Drescher, loves sports stories, I knew I had the perfect window to dig in deep on a politics- and policy-focused Olympics story.

What were the biggest hurdles to reporting it?

The largest obstacles were understanding where taxpayer money went and who wrote it into the budget. The two organizations—the U.S. Performance Center and the North Carolina Sports Legacy Foundation—each are required to report their expenses to the state. While 75 separate trips to Starbucks totaling $1,300 are pretty self-explanatory, private companies like “Foundations Consulting, LLC” billed the grant $36,000 a month for consulting, only describing it as “Pre-Development for Olympic Training Facilities.” 

In Raleigh, few legislators on the appropriations committees knew of either the for-profit or the private foundation, and ultimately no legislator took credit for putting the funding in the budget.

Have you learned anything new since we first ran the story last week?

After we published, House Democratic leader Rep. Robert Reives called for a legislative committee on government oversight, GovOps, to investigate the funding. 

On Friday, Business NC reported that state Sens. Phil Berger, Danny Britt, Dave Craven, Michael Lee, and Bill Rabon, as well as Rep. Kyle Hall, traveled to the Paris Olympics at the end of July. While the U.S. Performance Center originally tried to fund their trip, the State Ethics Commission Executive Director urged that no money or itinerary influence come from the company.

I’ve learned that Opportunity for North Carolina, the 501(c)4 that picked up the tab for the legislators’ trip, only formed last year. Three of five members on the board are former Gov. Pat McCrory’s appointees, the fourth was a past appointee of former Gov. Mike Easley, and the fifth is a past New Hanover County GOP director.

What We’re Reading

Hot Dam: A citizen-led effort to clear a beaver dam helped prevent damage from Tropical Storm Debby in Whiteville last week, according to The News Reporter.

Creature Comfort: The Washington Post looks at the effort to save endangered red wolves in eastern North Carolina—the only place on Earth they still live in the wild.

Third Party Time: Both Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be on the ballot this fall thanks to recent court rulings.

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