north carolina

June 28, 2012 - A new report grades states on how effectively they address educational disparities caused by concentrated poverty. It finds that a number of states in the South are not funding public schools adequately or distributing those funds where most needed, with Florida and North Carolina getting overall failing grades.

June 26, 2012 - As expected, this week the Supreme Court reaffirmed its 2010 Citizens United decision. While the ruling's impact on federal races has been well-documented, the influence of shadowy money on state-level races has received less attention -- but could be even more important.

June 22, 2012 - Real Jobs NC, a political group backed by Republican donor Art Pope that played a key role in North Carolina's 2010 elections, is preparing for 2012.

June 22, 2012 - Following the General Assembly's passage of legislation legalizing fracking, North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue's office reports receiving thousands of calls and emails asking for a veto. She also got a letter from the former mayor of a Texas community where fracking is big business warning about the bill's threats to property rights.

June 21, 2012 - Five months from Election Day, North Carolina Republican leaders have slashed the battleground state's election budget and forfeited $4 million in funds to improve voting. What havoc will this cause at the ballot box?

June 20, 2012 - Responding to fracking opponents' concerns over how cash-strapped North Carolina can afford to regulate the industry, the legislature's Republican leadership is reportedly in talks with the American Petroleum Institute about paying for its own regulators. But given API's role leading up the BP disaster in the Gulf, does that really serve the public interest?

June 15, 2012 - North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature has voted to legalize fracking in the state. Opponents are putting pressure on Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue to veto the bill, which does not appear to have enough support for an override.

June 15, 2012 - The deal to combine the two North Carolina-based utility giants has won conditional approval from federal regulators, but could it fall apart over worries about Progress Energy's Crystal River nuclear debacle in Florida and other expensive problems?

June 14, 2012 - Perseverance paid off for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee in North Carolina as Reynolds finally agreed to meet with the union to discuss tobacco pickers' abysmal work conditions.

June 13, 2012 - State lawmakers rushing to legalize a controversial method of natural-gas drilling got a visit from the former mayor of a rural Texas town where fracking is booming. Calvin Tillman shared a cautionary tale about what the gas industry can do to a community's landscape, residents' health and property rights.