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 [...]
Gov. Pat McCrory is expected to sign the monster anti-voting bill any day now. H-589 began in the state House as a photo ID bill but in the final days of the session, the state Senate rolled out a harsher version of the ID requirement, plus 40+ new provisions, including dozens that had never been discussed [...]
Late Thursday night, the NC General Assembly passed an elections bill that it is breathtaking in scope and radical in purpose. It makes the most regressive and sweeping changes to the core parts of our state’s election process in decades. In 56 pages, this redefines and restricts who can vote, where, when and how and [...]
The Senate took a preliminary vote late Wednesday to pass the monster bill that aims to limit voting and expand ways for big money to influence North Carolina elections. This WRAL story gives a rundown of the provisions in the bill (H-589) and the action on the Senate floor. The Senate will take up the [...]
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 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 [...]
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: [...]