north carolina

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.

June 12, 2012 - Despite a record of environmental pragmatism as Charlotte mayor, the North Carolina Republican gubernatorial hopeful has embraced a paranoid conspiracy theory that sees sustainable development as an evil United Nations plot to take over the world. Where did this idea come from, and what does it mean for McCrory's political future?

June 11, 2012 - NC WARN, a group that advocates for clean energy policies, has launched a campaign to provide free solar electric and hot water systems to organizations serving the poor.

June 6, 2012 - Conservative political activists connected to Wal-Mart and Amway are funding a campaign to funnel public money to religious and other private schools.

May 31, 2012 - Big industrial polluters have been investing millions in lobbying and campaign contributions while seeking to weaken North Carolina standards governing health-damaging pollution.