Money In Politics
November 21, 2013 -
The Civitas Institute, a think tank founded and funded by GOP mega-donor and NC budget director Art Pope, demanded emails and other records from UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity Director Gene Nichol shortly after he published a column blasting the McCrory administration. Is this yet another fishing expedition aimed at harassing an outspoken academic?
November 14, 2013 -
The State Policy Network -- a national alliance of right-wing think tanks funded by businessmen including the Kochs of Koch Industries, the Waltons of Wal-Mart, and Art Pope of Variety Stores -- is driving a corporate agenda in state legislatures. So why they aren't reporting their lobbying activities?
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 22, 2013 -
The Virginia-based Tea Party Leadership Fund argues that requiring it to disclose its donors puts them in danger comparable to what NAACP members faced in Alabama in the 1950s. Campaign finance watchdogs beg to differ.
October 18, 2013 -
The special election for Louisiana's impoverished 5th congressional district is set for Oct. 19, and Democrats are trying to turn it into the Democratic district it appears to be on paper -- and save the Affordable Care Act from continued assault from the right.
October 18, 2013 -
A redistricting lawsuit has landed in the N.C. Supreme Court, where plaintiffs are seeking the recusal of Justice Paul Newby because his 2012 re-election campaign got much of its support from the same GOP group involved in drawing the new political maps. They cite a similar case out of West Virginia that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled for recusal.
