campaign contributions

February 6, 2014 - Bipartisan legislation was introduced in Congress this week that would help tip the balance of political power back toward the people and away from wealthy special interests -- and it's already finding considerable support among members and advocacy groups.

January 3, 2014 - A by-the-numbers look at the political battle underway in North Carolina, where a a right-wing legislature and administration backed by monied special interests is being challenged by a grassroots protest movement that's now spreading to other states.

December 17, 2013 - The Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank founded and bankrolled by N.C. budget director Art Pope, sought funding to portray the Medicaid program as "failed" and to urge funding cuts, according to leaked documents obtained by The Guardian. The effort comes as the McCrory administration wants to privatize management of the public health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

December 17, 2013 - The private prison industry is fueling high incarceration rates in Mississippi and elsewhere in the United States. It's a way to keep an indentured class in a state and nation built on slavery.

November 1, 2013 - As spending on state judicial races skyrockets, so does voters' belief that all that money is influencing judges' decisions -- and that judges need to step aside from cases where a party has spent on their behalf.

October 31, 2013 - U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré was tapped to save New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Now retired from the military, he's rallying a different set of troops to save the Gulf Coast from the ravages of an irresponsible oil industry.

October 9, 2013 - How a Supreme Court decision striking aggregate campaign contribution limits would advance what one civil rights leader has called a "two-pronged attack on voter participation against regular people in America."