north carolina

July 8, 2014 - A new Census Bureau report finds a dramatic surge in the past decade in the number of Americans living in communities with concentrated poverty, with the greatest increase in North Carolina. Other states that experienced big jumps include Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia and South Carolina.

July 7, 2014 - Defenders of a controversial new North Carolina election law that's being challenged by civil rights groups cite statewide vote totals to argue against any racially discriminatory suppressive effect -- but local data tell a more complicated story.

July 3, 2014 - This summer a team of 30 organizers with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee will be working to sign up 5,000 new union members in North Carolina's tobacco fields -- part of a plan to press Reynolds American to guarantee basic labor rights in its supply chain.

July 2, 2014 - Millions of dollars in outside expenditures in North Carolina's May 2014 primary were hidden or delayed from being made public thanks to loopholes in the law. If the state Senate fails to act on a bill soon, millions more will likely be obscured from public view in November.

June 27, 2014 - The June 30 deadline for victims of North Carolina's eugenics program to apply for compensation is quickly approaching, but as of June 1 only 518 claims were made out of an estimated 1,500 people who have been verified by the state for compensation.

June 26, 2014 - North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory gave a radio interview last week in which he made a number of misleading claims about coal ash and his administration's response to Duke Energy's toxic pollution. With the issue still at the top of the legislature's agenda, we examine those claims and set the record straight.

June 25, 2014 - North Carolina's Republican House Speaker Pro Tem Paul "Skip" Stam distributed a handout during a debate this week over discrimination in charter school hiring that likened being gay to being sexually aroused by feces. The same flier has also been distributed by notorious anti-gay hate groups.

June 23, 2014 - A new report looks at industrial pollution releases into the nation's rivers and finds that waterways across the South face especially toxic contamination -- and would benefit from efforts to strengthen the Clean Water Act.

June 20, 2014 - As the North Carolina legislative session draws to a close, Moral Monday organizers are planning a mass protest on June 23 involving sit-ins and teach-ins inside the legislative building to begin the voter mobilization work leading up to the Nov. 4 election.

June 20, 2014 - Income inequality in the U.S. began growing dramatically around the time unionization rates began plummeting. Can the current push to organize the South reverse the trend?