Money In Politics

September 21, 2015 - So far this year 67 individuals and companies have given $1 million or more to super PACs supporting presidential candidates. Southern donors, including many Texas oil billionaires, account for over 50 percent of the contributions and have given exclusively to GOP candidates. 

September 11, 2015 - An effort is underway to kill a North Carolina law — the only one like it in the region — that requires utilities to generate an increasing amount of electricity from clean sources like solar and wind. Following the money behind what some are calling the "solar haters" campaign leads straight to dirty energy interests.

August 21, 2015 - A two-year investigation by North Carolina's elections board found no campaign finance violations by indicted video poker owners and their lobbyists, but questions remain about other possibly illegal activity by the industry — and about its relationship to Gov. Pat McCrory.

August 14, 2015 - An alliance of pro-drilling coastal state governors and the energy industry is pressing the Obama administration to open the Atlantic to oil and gas development. But a growing grassroots movement is fighting the plan, arguing that the environmental and economic risks are too great.

August 13, 2015 - After a stint as North Carolina's budget director, discount retail magnate and Republican kingmaker Art Pope is back to spending money on electoral politics.

August 4, 2015 - More than 100 companies have severed ties with the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council, but documents show 54 companies still sponsoring the conservative policy group's annual meeting this summer, including top energy companies and businesses in the South.

July 10, 2015 - Wealthy special interests are increasingly spending money to influence state judicial races, threatening the independence of judges and damaging public confidence in the integrity of the courts.