conflict of interest
October 17, 2014 -
In the first election since the end of North Carolina's judicial public financing program, Supreme Court and Court of Appeals candidates have raised nearly three times the amount of individual contributions as they had in recent elections -- and much of that money is coming from those with matters before the courts.
October 15, 2014 -
Baker Mitchell is a politically connected North Carolina businessman who celebrates the power of the free market. Every year, millions of public education dollars flow through Mitchell's chain of four nonprofit charter schools to for-profit companies he controls.
August 22, 2014 -
North Carolina has passed the nation's first state law regulating coal ash, but it's being met with protests for not doing enough to protect public health and the environment -- and for placing oversight in the hands of political appointees in a state where Duke Energy is a major campaign financier.
July 16, 2014 -
The NC Mining and Energy Commission is taking public comments on the state's proposed fracking rules through Sept. 15. Meanwhile, environmentalists are urging the commission to reinstate the ban on the controversial gas drilling technique.
April 8, 2014 -
After a flood protection authority in Southeast Louisiana filed a lawsuit against almost 100 oil and gas companies seeking to recoup billions of dollars for damages they've caused to the coast, the industry's friends in state government have scrambled to make the lawsuit retroactively illegal.
April 3, 2014 -
North Carolina regulators have found highly toxic thallium seeping from coal ash pits at two Duke Energy plants. Rep. Mike Hager -- the state lawmaker who co-chairs the committee that will handle coal ash cleanup legislation and former engineering manager for one of the thallium-leaking plants -- doesn't think the discovery is cause for alarm. Is his perspective shaped by his Duke connections?
March 6, 2014 -
With a new poll finding North Carolina voters overwhelmingly want state officials to force Duke Energy to clean up its coal ash pits, a protest outside the governor's mansion that involved the Moral Monday movement leader turned up the heat on the McCrory administration, which is under federal investigation following the Feb. 2 spill into the Dan River.
