Politics
May 15, 2015 -
Bills to provide additional funding for charter schools were introduced this session at the North Carolina legislature. Most of the sponsors have benefited from campaign donations or independent spending by groups advocating school privatization.
May 13, 2015 -
Traditional colleges and universities have become unlikely allies of the beleaguered for-profit industry as each group tries to fend off the government's push for more accountability.
May 7, 2015 -
As Louisiana struggles with a looming $1.6 billion budget deficit, the Jindal administration is helping the state's oil and gas industry avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes and royalties. A new video primer details the scheme using data from state audits.
May 6, 2015 -
Over 100 corporations will receive shareholder resolutions this year calling on them to voluntarily disclose their political spending and lobbying activities. Some companies have already begun disclosing this information voluntarily, including North Carolina-based tobacco giant Reynolds American.
April 30, 2015 -
Five years after the BP disaster, a group of governors led by North Carolina's Pat McCrory is pushing for drilling in the Atlantic. The group has close ties to a secret-money nonprofit and energy lobbyists, a relationship that raises questions about transparency, ethics and the blurring of public and private interests.
April 23, 2015 -
The U.S. Supreme Court sent North Carolina's redistricting challenge back to the state's high court this week, asking it to reconsider whether the legislature relied too heavily on race in drawing voting lines. The decision comes following similar rulings in cases out of Alabama and Virginia, offering hope for an end to racial gerrymandering.
April 20, 2015 -
Super PACS that get nearly all of their money from one donor quadrupled their share of overall fund-raising in 2014.