mike stone

November 21, 2014 - Independent spending continues to grow in North Carolina politics, topping $9 million in 2014. But the groups involved and the way the money is spent is evolving, reshaping the state's political landscape.

November 14, 2014 - The American Petroleum Institute jumped into the outside spending game in the North Carolina state politics this year. Most of its chosen legislative candidates won re-election -- but not all of them. Was outside spending by environmentalists a factor in the losses?

July 11, 2013 - More legislators in North Carolina than in any other state have signed Americans for Prosperity's pledge that discourages action on climate change. Credit for the pledge's political success goes to the billionaire brothers of Koch Industries who founded AFP -- but also to North Carolina's own Art Pope, a conservative mega-donor and longtime AFP leader.

March 14, 2013 - Of the four primary sponsors behind new legislation to repeal North Carolina's groundbreaking renewable energy law, three have documented ties to the fossil fuel-funded conservative policy group that's been gunning for renewables.