Politics

July 19, 2013 - In May, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) announced a plan to automatically restore voting rights on an individual basis to nonviolent felons who completed their sentence. This week, his administration revealed the details of the plan, which was crafted with the help of voting rights advocacy groups.

July 19, 2013 - The Republican-led state Senate unveiled legislation this week that will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians to vote. Voting rights advocates are protesting the latest example of the state's regressive political turn.

July 17, 2013 - Democracy North Carolina criticizes the $99,000 fine that's part of the proposed settlement between the utility giant and state regulators over water contamination from its coal-fired power plants as "piddling" while raising concerns about the company's political influence and close ties to Gov. Pat McCrory.

July 15, 2013 - A new poll finds that the majority of North Carolina residents oppose fracking, but their elected state representatives are aggressively pushing to fast-track the controversial gas drilling technique in the state. Could a backlash be brewing?

July 15, 2013 - Civil rights and gun safety leaders are calling for the repeal of what some decry as racially biased "shoot-first" laws, which are especially popular in the South. Some are putting renewed pressure on the corporate members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the business advocacy group that promoted such laws in the states.

July 12, 2013 - South Carolina is the latest state where politicians' tales of dead voters casting ballots have been proven false, but restrictive voting laws are still being passed in response to these myths. Perhaps it's time for a law to ban such false claims as a form of voter fraud?

July 11, 2013 - More legislators in North Carolina than in any other state have signed Americans for Prosperity's pledge that discourages action on climate change. Credit for the pledge's political success goes to the billionaire brothers of Koch Industries who founded AFP -- but also to North Carolina's own Art Pope, a conservative mega-donor and longtime AFP leader.