Politics

September 13, 2013 - A group of prominent Democrats has launched a project to promote the idea that coal is part of a sustainable U.S. energy future -- even as new evidence emerges showing just how environmentally destructive coal really is.

September 12, 2013 - The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next month in McCutcheon v. FEC, a case that has social justice advocates worried about how looser campaign finance limits worsen America's growing wealth gap.

September 11, 2013 - Plaintiffs suing over North Carolina's controversial new elections law have notified the Civitas Institute -- a conservative think tank founded and largely funded by Republican mega-donor Art Pope, now state budget director -- to preserve documents and other records related to the legislation.

September 11, 2013 - After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, Florida Gov. Rick Scott began planning to reinstate a voter purge program that had been challenged under the law. But his scheme to use a federal database of immigrant welfare benefits is drawing legal fire from advocacy groups that say it will discourage recently naturalized citizens from exercising their voting rights.

September 5, 2013 - Inspired by the Moral Monday movement, students across North Carolina are organizing a college tour to raise awareness around election protection, planning a march on the governor's mansion to protest attacks on voting, and launching a group to protect voters from intimidation at the polls.

September 3, 2013 - In a decision that holds important implications for student voting rights statewide, the N.C. State Board of Elections overruled a local elections board that barred Montravias King -- a student at historically black Elizabeth City State University -- from running for local office because he registered to vote at his campus dormitory.

August 29, 2013 - The conservative mega-donor, now the state budget director, played important but behind-the-scenes roles in the passage of one of the nation's most restrictive voting laws, from ginning up fear of voter fraud to backing politicians who fought for voting restrictions.