State Policy

February 6, 2013 - Conservative mega-donor Art Pope has helped finance a movement to discredit mainstream climate science. Now North Carolina's budget director, he will help make important fiscal decisions for a state facing serious threats from climate change.

February 1, 2013 - A by-the-numbers look at how claims of "states' rights" -- once used to defend racial segregation -- are being used to justify legislative assaults on the interests of economically struggling citizens in North Carolina, Mississippi and elsewhere across the South.

January 30, 2013 - The legislative session that starts today promises to bring big changes to North Carolina as the leaders of the once-progressive state seek to slash unemployment insurance, create a more regressive tax code, impose voter ID requirements, increase private control of public schools, and enshrine right-to-work in the state constitution.

January 25, 2013 - At the same time North Carolina is dramatically expanding the number of charter schools operating in the state, new research from Duke University finds that charter schools are much more likely than traditional public schools to be racially unbalanced -- and that can have negative educational consequences for students.

January 25, 2013 - North Carolina and Louisiana are among the states considering a plan to eliminate corporate and personal income taxes. But analyses of the plan and other work by its author find serious flaws -- and one of the plan's own financiers is distancing himself from it publicly.

January 22, 2013 - Until recently, North Carolina was recognized as a leader in expanding women's access to abortion care. What happened?

January 18, 2013 - Southern states with weak gun laws are a major source of weapons used to commit crimes in other states -- but some of the region's political leaders say they plan to resist new federal initiatives to curb gun violence.