A host of data collected by Democracy North Carolina shows how legislation to change election rules would significantly affect the voters in each county. For example, the bill to require that voters show a government photo ID could impact nearly 5% of North Carolina voters, according to the Board’s analysis conducted this spring. Statewide, 318,000 registered voters [...]
In a remarkable sweetheart deal anchored with $1 million in campaign contributions, Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration yesterday agreed to settle a lawsuit against Duke Energy’s pollution of drinking water supplies in western North Carolina. Millions of tons of ash residue from Duke’s power plants have leaked contaminants into Mountain Island Lake near Charlotte and the [...]
On the same day that the New York Times posted its widely circulating, must-read editorial about the demise of North Carolina as “a beacon of farsightedness in the South,” a more thoughtful column by veteran political reporter Tom Edsall received too little attention. His essay is titled, “The Decline of Black Power in the South,” [...]
The day after the Supreme Court’s disappointing decision on the Voting Rights Act, Portside.org posted an article documenting the less talked-about economic benefits of the VRA. In addition to an increase in African-American elected leaders, passage of the VRA correlates to improvements in the quality of life for millions of African Americans and other Southerners. [...]
Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show has two recent segments on “conservatives gone wild” in North Carolina. One features the “radical restructuring” of its election laws and another focuses on the state Senate’s “sneak attack” on women’s constitutionally protected access to an abortion. A longer segment places the North Carolina attack in the context of similar sinister [...]
The parasite sucking life from the body politic is smaller than the 1%, according to a new study of the political money suppliers. The Sunlight Foundation found that just 1% of the top 1% gave 28% of all the disclosed political contributions influencing the 2012 federal elections - $1.7 billion of the nearly $6 billion [...]
Here’s the National Journal's real world analysis of what today’s US Supreme Court decision means regarding the Voting Rights Act – plus one pro-Court overview and a video report from WRAL-TV. The Court’s 5-4 conservative majority did not rule directly on the constitutionality of Section 5’s requirement of preclearance. Section 5 says certain jurisdictions with a history of discrimination must get pre-approval [...]
More details are coming out about how Art Pope intervened two weeks ago to kill the judicial public financing program. To stop Rep. Jonathan Jordan’s amendment that would have saved the program, it’s now apparent that Pope misled Jordan with a crucial falsehood - some might say a lie, although perhaps Pope was misinformed himself. [...]
As Duke Energy travels to Winston-Salem and other parts of the state to justify its rate hike request, NC WARN has obtained the records behind the request – and they include hundreds of thousands of dollars for Duke expenses that should be charged to its stockholders, not to customers like you. Expenses like $270,000 for [...]
Imagine speed dating adapted to the world of political fundraising and policymaking. It’s happening here in North Carolina routinely, thanks to the courtship of lobbying firms with wealthy clients and politicians eager for their cash. In identical front-page stories, the Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News & Observer described one such event on May 10, 2012: [...]