Michelle Alfini

LIFE UPDATE: I’ve got a new job! Starting Monday, I’ll be the Climate Beat Reporter at WSOC in Charlotte.

@dessyfreakaz @kaleekreider @MattZeitlin Maybe it’s a product of living in the south where nuclear is more common but the prevailing anti-nuclear opinion I run into is economic: VC Summer was a boondoggle. Hearing people mention Chernobyl and even nuclear waste is rare even among the environmental groups I talk to.

@dessyfreakaz @kaleekreider @MattZeitlin That’s a little disappointing to hear nuclear is unpopular among more “informed” women in your experience. My thought is nuclear energy is a pretty low salience topic for most people and I think more can be done to try and proactively change public opinion.

the gender gap on nuclear power is probably the most fascinating persistent finding in public opinion, there's a way bigger gap here than on issues we think of as being gender-coded

@kaleekreider @MattZeitlin In other words, it’s a common opinion among women but probably not a very entrenched one. Most women probably don’t think about nuclear energy very much at all.

@kaleekreider @MattZeitlin I think it’s also an artifact of older views. Nuclear just isn’t really discussed very much outside of climate, energy and tech circles which tend to more male so needle hasn’t moved very much. Everyone I’ve spoken to on nuclear stories for or against has been a man.

@InlandCaGuy @CathyReisenwitz Wow. That first one should not be a line graph. The data is not presented very well but it does show the sharpest decline in births in the past 15 years is in the lowest income brackets.

@CathyReisenwitz Well... not that I buy so much into this giant culture war narrative entirely, but the decline has come across the income spectrum and a lot both at top and bottom, and also declined a LOT for self described liberals, so there might be something to it.

Birth rates are declining among low-income Americans, the cohort famously most likely to read and follow the dictates of think pieces. I doubt very seriously that you have begun to think

@honeybunwife I’ve lost two close relatives in the past year. The only recent photos of them were from my wedding portraits. That’s what ended up in the obituaries.

my mom had the big 90s wedding in 1992. they even splurged on a videographer. you may say that seems unimportant, but every year when she watches that video, more and more people in it have died, and that’s the only footage she has left of them.

@BFidazzo @JoeBrunoWSOC9 Hey Brian, I'm working on a story looking into the PNG rates and comparing them with others across the state and region. I saw your comments in a few of these threads. Would you email me at michelle.alfini@wsoc-tv.com

@JoeBrunoWSOC9 Gas should be affordable because it's such a cheap commodity from Transco pipeline. Problem is Piedmont base rate they charge for delivery is absurd. Our gas $386 last month because we ran electric space heaters and turned down both furnaces.

How much was your Piedmont Natural Gas bill this past month? I’m hearing so many complaints about this.

@ConnieLaxMom @JoeBrunoWSOC9 $611 is crazy. I'm working on a story about these bills for WSOC. Would you mind emailing me at michelle.alfini@wsoc-tv.com?

@JoeBrunoWSOC9 $611! Highest I’ve ever seen as a homeowner for 40 years.

@emilykmay @JillFilipovic And God forbid it doesn’t come naturally. Nursing’s one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life.

@JillFilipovic breastfeeding and raising children is only free if you place no value on women's time.

Raising babies is definitely not free, though, which may explain why a lot of women wait to do it. We could make it a lot cheaper - feminists have been the ones demanding that for decades though.

@SpotTheStriker @micyoung75 We had to refile our marriage certificate three months after the wedding because the clerk misspelled the counties we were from (lol). We had to track down our officiant and the witnesses to resign. It took a year and a half for us to get the real copy.

@micyoung75 It took my husband and I over a year to get our marriage certificate cause they kept fumbling the request/typing the address wrong/etc. We had to try three times, paying a fee each time, before they finally got it to us. I can't imagine the mistakes/withholding now.

If the bar for citizenship is now “conquer the DMV gauntlet or forfeit your voice,” then we’re not protecting democracy. We’re auctioning it to the most administratively privileged. Want proof of citizenship? Fine. I’ll meet you there. But real integrity pairs it with free IDs, mobile units, extended hours, and commonsense exemptions. That way we’re stopping fraud, not steamrolling grandmothers who haven’t needed a birth certificate since Truman was president. This isn’t about “true colors.” It’s about whether we believe every eligible American deserves a fighting chance to vote, or if we’re cool telling married women, veterans, rural folks, and disaster survivors that paperwork hiccups mean permanent benchwarming. Democracy shouldn’t require a trust fund, a car, and infinite free time. Fix the access, or own the exclusion.

@kmondayWSOC9 We should have added a third box.

The station made a fun timelapse of yesterday's big snow using Bojangles boxes. No chicken or biscuits were harmed in the creation of this video.

@2024dion @coldstreams lol that is extremely church dependent. The church I grew up in was designed to look like the catacombs, basically a cave with an altar. As a result, I don’t know a single person who got married there.

Good for you, genuinely. But I don’t think it’s at all wrong that people generally find an arrangement like that unsatisfying—one of the great advantages of religious weddings is that churches are an aesthetically beautiful backdrop to a wedding that you don’t have to pay a premium for. ofc I’m biased—I got married in a chapel for a couple hundred bucks and it was stunning

A major reason weddings are more expensive that people don't talk about much is secularization & the related decline in associations. As soon as you get a 'venue' involved (instead of a church ceremony + church hall/masonic lodge reception), costs go through the roof.

@AleksSzcze @soblackandblue @CartoonsHateHer Yeah and on my end it was: “surely he’ll notice the signs that I’m uncomfortable or disappointed.” Lol no he won’t. Not when it’s more convenient for him not to. You have to tell him that.

@MichelleAlf @soblackandblue @CartoonsHateHer Yes, I honestly think there's a difference though and it's a skill in communication that needs to be learned. Men treat: "You've not taken me to dinner last week" as nagging but: "I want to go on a date" as honesty.

If a woman is single after a certain age, people assume she's intentionally avoiding marriage to focus on her career or casual dating--but in 2026, it's pretty hard to find a husband on a 2006 timeline, even if you're attractive and not crazy-picky. Link in replies.

@ant_dracula @soblackandblue @CartoonsHateHer Cope is a strange way to put it. It’s a genuinely common character flaw that I had to work on to become a happier and healthier person. We’d all be better off if we could articulate our desires. Unfortunately, most people don’t achieve emotional maturity at 18.

@MichelleAlf @soblackandblue @CartoonsHateHer Cope. This is cowardice, not socialization.

@soblackandblue @CartoonsHateHer I don’t think he’s lying when he says he’s not ready. I think he needs the loss to finally mature enough to be ready and that sucks for all involved.

@soblackandblue @CartoonsHateHer I think the pressure’s still there but the urgency isn’t. That’s why there’s a common pattern of long-term relationship ➡️ girlfriend makes marriage ultimatum ➡️ man says, “I’m not ready” ➡️ breakup ➡️ man enters new relationship ➡️ marries her.

@soblackandblue @CartoonsHateHer And I’m not trying to villainize men here. I don’t think in most cases they’re wasting their girlfriends’ time intentionally. I think unless her desire is specifically articulated it’s easy for him to believe in the version of their relationship that’s most convenient for him.

@soblackandblue @CartoonsHateHer Yeah, unfortunately women are socialized not to ask plainly for what they want lest they become demanding nags. Personally, it took some pretty painful mistakes for me to realize no one is going to read your mind and being safe and happy is more important than being liked.

@soblackandblue @CartoonsHateHer Because she loves him?