local control

September 26, 2018 - After former Confederate states drafted progressive constitutions that allowed black men to hold office for the first time, there was violent resistance to black power at the local level. During the Jim Crow era, legislatures rewrote those constitutions to give themselves broad power to override local governments.

November 17, 2017 - Democrats, liberal-leaning independents and a growing number of progressives lead two-thirds of the South's 30 largest cities, but their agenda is under attack from the region's conservative legislatures through preemption and other efforts to limit local control.

December 20, 2012 - Bill Ritter, who led a revamp of Colorado's fracking regulations and is now being considered to head the U.S. Department of Energy, visited North Carolina this week to share his thoughts with the state's fracking commission. With controversy over the risky practice roiling his home state, Ritter emphasized the need for drillers to obtain what he called a "social license" to operate.

June 22, 2012 - Following the General Assembly's passage of legislation legalizing fracking, North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue's office reports receiving thousands of calls and emails asking for a veto. She also got a letter from the former mayor of a Texas community where fracking is big business warning about the bill's threats to property rights.