E-mail: wendy.parker@patch.com

Phone: 770-265-0128

Twitter: http://twitter.com/EastCobbPatch

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EastCobbPatch

Bio: I'm a veteran journalist and a long-time resident of East Cobb, with family ties here dating to the early 1970s. 

I'm a graduate of Wheeler High School and Troy University, and have spent most of my career as a reporter and editor in the Atlanta area. 

I have been a reporter at The Marietta Daily Journal and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where I covered Cobb sports and news. During my time at the AJC, I also covered college football and basketball, the Olympics, soccer and women's sports. I later worked as an online producer and editor at ajc.com. 

My politics

I'm generally liberal but not dogmatic or partisan. I support a blend of free enterprise with a social safety net. The health care law passed in 2010 is hardly ideal, but is worth improving, not repealing. 

Elected officials who wish to regulate the private lives and relations of people on moral grounds or tap into cultural fear and resentment will never get my vote. For too long in Cobb we have had politicians who have tried to do this, and at times it became a national embarrassment. 

While I know the area in which I grew up is more conservative than I am, I also think we're more respectful of the differences of our fellow citizens than how we've been portrayed.

Religion 

I grew up in a Lutheran family, and as an adult explored Roman Catholicism and attended an Episcopal church. I am no longer religious, but I do have a great appreciation for what faith means to so many people, especially in this part of the country.

East Cobb is a diverse community along religious lines -- with many mainline Protestant denominations, two Catholic churches, three synagogues and even a Unitarian Universalist congregation, and I want our coverage of faith communities to reflect that.

Local Hot Button Issues

East Cobbers are talking a lot these days about how to balance restrained government spending with the need to address their quality of life.

The 2011 Cobb SPLOST referendum barely passed and voters here will be asked to vote in March 2013 on extending a penny in sales taxes for school construction.

I'm an unabashed fan of Cobb parks and libraries, and think they haven't always gotten proper support in a county that prides itself on thrift.

While budget issues are a serious issue and will be for years, we've neglected taking care of what we've built up over nearly 40 years of breakneck growth.

A couple of goood examples are two beloved institutions from my youth. Sewell Park, where I played softball and tennis and swam, and the East Marietta Library, where I avidly checked out books and participated in the summer reading program, deserve long overdue renovations so future generations can enjoy them.

East Cobb schools are some of the best in the state, but if the SPLOST referendum doesn't pass the alternative would be to float a bond issue that might end up costing taxpayers more and put the school district in debt at the worst possible time.

I'm thrilled that Wheeler High, my alma mater, is getting a badly needed renovation, but obtaining the funding for it was an unnecessarily difficult process.