NC Policy Watch

January 3, 2013 - One of the biggest decisions facing North Carolina's new legislature and governor is whether to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to cover more than 500,000 low-income people. Much of the opposition to expansion is more about ideology than anything else, a visceral reaction to a law that has been mischaracterized since it was proposed.

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 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.

November 16, 2012 - Last week's election demonstrated the growing power of Latino voters and the renewed demand for results on immigration policy.

October 25, 2012 - A new study finds that North Carolina has some of the strangest-shaped congressional districts in the nation -- part of a trend that experts say has led to the disappearance of political moderates.

September 25, 2012 - A new report from the N.C. Justice Center and the UNC Immigration/Human Rights Policy Clinic features the stories of 10 workers in low-paying jobs who were denied earned wages.

September 20, 2012 - Under the Affordable Care Act, racial and ethnic differentials in health insurance coverage are poised to shrink due to the extension of coverage to hundreds of thousands of individuals and families, particularly through the Medicaid expansion.