June 17, 2016 -
I recently had the opportunity to go to Washington to advocate for Central American youth who have been detained in Georgia. Their stories helped me understand the larger issue at hand: Black and Brown youth across the South are being criminalized.
June 17, 2016 -
A watchdog group has filed complaints against 10 "social welfare" nonprofits for allegedly breaking campaign finance laws. Six of the nonprofits are also targets of a criminal complaint submitted to the FBI and Justice Department accusing them of lying to the IRS. Several are part of the Koch brothers' conservative spending machine.
June 14, 2016 -
At this week's Moral Monday rally in Sylva, North Carolina, Rev. William Barber of the state NAACP addressed the mass shooting that took place a day earlier at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida. He called out political leaders who foment hate and called on people to keep the faith that love is greater.
June 10, 2016 -
MapLight has compiled a database of all politically active "social welfare" nonprofits, many of which formed after a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling loosening rules for political spending. It documents 650 such groups in the South, with some of the top-grossing ones part of the billionaire Koch brothers' formidable political spending machine.
June 10, 2016 -
A North Carolina-based climate advocacy group filed a complaint this week with the Environmental Protection Agency's Inspector General charging that the EPA is covering up underreporting of the natural gas industry's emissions of methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas.
June 10, 2016 -
North Carolina lawmakers recently proposed drastically cutting tuition at several historically black public universities but altered the bill after protests by HBCU students and alumni. One of the lawmakers behind the measure was also a key player behind a law that limited voting rights and dramatically affected HBCU students, and they haven't forgotten.
June 9, 2016 -
Two climate watchdogs will now have a chance to continue their appeal of North Carolina regulators' decision allowing Duke Energy to build a $1.1 billion fracked gas power plant thanks to an order handed down this week by the state appeals court rejecting a $10 million bond requirement from the nonprofit groups.