Politics

November 18, 2015 - Will exploiting fear of terrorism help North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory win what's expected to be a tough re-election battle? His campaign is giving it a try, issuing a fundraising appeal touting his call to bar Syrian refugees from his state over security concerns.

November 13, 2015 - Republicans may dominate state politics in the South, but Democrats have managed to hold on to the mayorships of the region's biggest cities. There are limits to local control, however — and in recent years GOP state lawmakers have imposed even more.

November 12, 2015 - Nonprofits, presidential candidates, and others are engaging in legally questionable political fundraising and spending as the government agencies that are supposed to enforce the law do nothing. Good-government groups are pressing for action.

November 10, 2015 - A North Carolina law that bans so-called "sanctuary city" ordinances uses language from a model bill crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate interest advocacy group whose members include private prison companies that stand to profit from immigrant detention.

November 5, 2015 - A new study finds that candidates running for office nationwide are less diverse in terms of race and gender than the broader U.S. population. In the South, the situation is particularly dire for representation among women.

November 4, 2015 - From Kentucky to Virginia to Mississippi, the GOP's dominance in state-level races across the South continued in this week's elections. Meanwhile, Mississippi voters rejected a school-funding initiative, and an anti-discrimination measure lost big in Houston.

November 2, 2015 - The nation's largest electric utility is going after a nonprofit energy watchdog for installing a solar system on the roof of a North Carolina church and selling it clean power in violation of state laws granting utilities monopoly status.