Politics
  
  
    
      
  
  
  
      
  
  
  
    
  
    
        
    
          
              
            
            
            
        December 21, 2012 -
        
  
        There are growing calls for better gun regulation in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre. But what are gun-control advocates up against when they take on the National Rifle Association?
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
        
    
          
              
            
            
            
        December 21, 2012 -
        
  
        Dec. 22 marks four years since a coal ash impoundment collapsed at a TVA power plant in Tennessee, inundating a community and two rivers. As EPA drags its feet over issuing federal coal ash rules, politicians backed by industry interests are maneuvering to block the agency's ability to protect people and the environment -- even though their states have been adversely affected by poor regulation.
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
        
    
          
              
            
            
            
        December 14, 2012 -
        
  
        What does it say about the current state of North Carolina politics that not only is voter suppression legislation expected to pass early in the 2013 legislative session but that the head of Raleigh's leading conservative think tank doesn't even believe it's controversial?
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
        
    
          
              
            
            
            
        December 13, 2012 -
        
  
        Today's right-to-work movement can trace its origins to the Jim Crow and Red Scare South. 
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
        
    
          
              
            
            
            
        December 11, 2012 -
        
  
        In addition to hearing challenges to laws banning same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, landmark civil rights legislation that's been increasingly under attack.
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
        
    
          
              
            
            
            
        December 7, 2012 -
        
  
        A proponent of abolishing the minimum wage and corporate income taxes, Dan Forest is quite likely the most conservative statewide elected official in North Carolina. But his work with a nonprofit that criticizes retailer Sears for promoting pornography by showing photos of women in lingerie crosses the line into wacky.
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
        
    
          
              
            
            
            
        December 6, 2012 -
        
  
        The N.C. Utilities Commission and attorney general have settled their probes into Duke Energy's controversial $32 billion merger with Progress Energy. But a watchdog group calls the settlements a "sell-out of the public" and says it will continue to fight the merger in court.