Politics

September 4, 2012 - With conventions in Florida and North Carolina, all eyes are on the South. Here's your crash course in the key issues and trends to watch in the region's fast-changing political landscape.

August 31, 2012 - A key provision of the nearly half-century-old Voting Rights Act has been instrumental in reversing new restrictions on voting in the South. But the measure's days may be numbered.

August 31, 2012 - The Romney campaign had a strangely inapt group of messengers promote the theme of Ayn Rand-style entrepreneurship at the Republican Convention: GOP governors who have presided over deals in which huge sums of taxpayer money have been handed over to large corporations.

August 27, 2012 - The North Carolina General Assembly's Republican leaders are raising more money from special-interest political action committees than their predecessors, despite promises to end the state's "pay to play" political culture.

August 27, 2012 - Public employees of the North Carolina city hosting next week's Democratic National Convention protest because they have to work long hours at low pay yet are denied collective bargaining rights.

August 22, 2012 - The theme of the Republican National Convention in Florida is "We Built This," an echo of the GOP's anti-government spending message. But bashing the public sector may not fly in Florida, a state that relies on defense dollars, the space program and other taxpayer-funded programs for economic survival.

August 20, 2012 - Planning is underway to make the opening day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. one to recognize the struggle of workers in the nation's least unionized and poorest paid region.