North Carolina is apparently becoming the poster child for how self-serving billionaires can protect their profits by buying a state’s elections. The New Yorker has a gruesome profile of the ramped-up manipulation of West Virginia’s people and politics by the energy/chemical industry after a disastrous spill ruined the drinking water for hundreds of thousands of [...]
A lengthy analysis by WRAL News shows that 167 NC environmental regulators will soon be subject to firing for any or no reason, at the discretion of Gov. Pat McCrory. That's seven times the number of exempt or political positions in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources during Gov. Bev Perdue’s administration. Gov. McCrory, [...]
What do the Koch brothers and Halliburton have in common? Well, a lot of things, but most recently both are dolling out mega bucks to the lobbying firm Shockey Scofield Solutions (S3) to fight environmental regulations. The Kochs hired S3’s Mike Ference, a former aide to both Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Sen. Jim Inhofe [...]
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,” [...]
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 [...]
The American Prospect magazine features a collection of articles about the South's changing political dynamics. Bob Moser, once with the NC Indy and now AP’s editor, writes the lead essay about the “End of the Solid South.” Chris Kromm and Sue Sturgis of the Institute for Southern Studies have a timely article about North Carolina’s [...]
Legislators who claim they are champions of free enterprise and competition are ready to use the power of Big Government to thwart the marketing plans of a California company that makes electric cars. The company wants to bypass North Carolina auto dealers by selling its cars to customers through the Internet or company-owned stores. That's seen [...]
If you haven’t seen this already, here’s a rundown of the wonderful things happening in North Carolina that the billionaire Koch brothers hope to replicate in other states. Not that they’ve given up on controlling the US Senate, White House, several major newspapers, energy policy . . . the list goes on. But their current [...]
Time is running out to register for the NC Council of Churches’ Legislative Seminar on April 11. As the registration form and program announcement says, “The full day of workshops is led by expert presenters and offers opportunities for progressive people of faith to learn about critical issues facing the General Assembly. Grassroots activists working [...]