Politics

December 17, 2013 - The Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank founded and bankrolled by N.C. budget director Art Pope, sought funding to portray the Medicaid program as "failed" and to urge funding cuts, according to leaked documents obtained by The Guardian. The effort comes as the McCrory administration wants to privatize management of the public health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

December 17, 2013 - The private prison industry is fueling high incarceration rates in Mississippi and elsewhere in the United States. It's a way to keep an indentured class in a state and nation built on slavery.

December 16, 2013 - Hundreds of professors and grad students from colleges and universities across North Carolina are urging Gov. Pat McCrory to condemn a broad information request from a think tank tied to his state budget director. The group is seeking records from UNC law professor and anti-poverty crusader Gene Nichol, an outspoken administration critic.

December 13, 2013 - A conservative group that's sued to force states to purge voting rolls this week intervened in a lawsuit over North Carolina's restrictive new voting law, seeking to defend it from challenges by the Department of Justice and civil rights groups. The poster child for its defense is a North Carolina politician who's attacked student voting rights.

December 13, 2013 - Corporate interest advocacy groups including the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council made repealing North Carolina's renewable energy law a top priority last year. Their effort failed, but now ALEC is trying a different approach by taking aim at the solar boom.

December 11, 2013 - An informational picket campaign focused on Maxway, Roses and other stores owned by Republican donor Art Pope is attracting new followers and generating fresh scrutiny of Pope's political network in North Carolina.

December 10, 2013 - But through federal taxes, their residents will still help pay for the cost of other states' efforts to expand health insurance coverage to more low-income people.