Politics

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 21, 2013 - The assault on labor in the region is becoming increasingly war-like, but it's not getting much attention from the mainstream media.

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.

October 14, 2013 - Environmental advocates call North Carolina's 2013 legislative session one of "heartbreak," with an unprecedented number of lawmakers earning zeros on an annual scorecard. The governor also got graded for the first time, earning an F on his budget and a D- overall.

October 10, 2013 - With elections fast approaching, officials in Florida and Virginia are hard at work striking names from their lists of eligible voters. But their efforts are the target of legal challenges by those who say questionable purge methods threaten to disenfranchise eligible voters.

October 10, 2013 - A student at a historically black North Carolina college who had his right to run for office challenged has won a city council seat, and students at another of the state's HBCUs marched to the polls en masse in a local election that represented a repudiation of right-wing attacks on public schools.