State Sen.

Donzella James believes this year's General Assembly session will be

remembered for a very long time.

With the

battle over the state flag done, James said the legislators solved a

problem that had been simmering a long time.

"This

will go down in history. The flag issue was a 20-year battle,"

she said.

Although

a small facsimile of the divisive flag is still on the new one, James

said the new flag represents a very fair compromise and allowed legislators

to move on to other issues.

James is

also proud that her bill raising the minimum wage to $5.15 passed. The

federal minimum wage is $5.15, but there was a small number of workers

not covered under federal laws. James' bill insures that all workers

will make at least the federal standard.

"I don't

think it's a liveable wage, but it is a fair one," she said.

James also

helped push through a bill that now makes pimping a felony in the state.

"There

were a lot of these people who just paid their fine and were arrested

sometimes 30 and 40 times a year," she said.

Pimps who

are convicted now will face jail time and up to a $5,000 fines, she

said.

The legislators

also worked on election reform and hope to have the current system overhauled

James is

hopeful that paper ballots will be eliminated and the state will be

voting on machines similar to ATM machines.

Later on

this year, the General Assembly will reconvene for a special session

on redistricting. James believes the session could be especially divisive,

since the state's population grew so much.

But she's

hopeful that legislators will be able to work as well on the redistricting

as they did on the flag.