Politics

May 31, 2013 - Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell unveiled a plan this week to automatically restore voting rights to nonviolent felons in a state where one in five African-American adults is disenfranchised due to an unusually harsh law. Civil rights advocates praised the move, but some say the governor should go further.

May 28, 2013 - The failure of legislation to repeal the state's groundbreaking renewable energy program is a setback for conservative ideologues, but the lawmaker who led the repeal initiative says he hopes to continue the effort using new tactics.

May 28, 2013 - Amid a shortage of drugs used for executions, some states are searching for new suppliers and different drugs. Others -- including Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee -- have amended public records laws to keep the names of suppliers and manufacturers of alternative drugs secret.

May 24, 2013 - Over 150 people have been arrested so far in nonviolent protests against the N.C. legislature's far-right agenda, and even bigger actions are planned next month.

May 24, 2013 - With its trailblazing public financing program for judicial elections targeted for elimination by Republican state leaders, North Carolina got a visit this week from two prominent West Virginia conservatives who made a case for why such programs benefit a state's people and economy.

May 23, 2013 - Census data shows that record numbers of newcomers are coming to the South, from both the U.S. and abroad. How will that change the future of Southern politics?

May 23, 2013 - Under legal pressure from environmental advocates, North Carolina regulators are seeking court orders to force Duke Energy to clean up groundwater contamination from unlined coal ash storage ponds at power plants near Asheville and Charlotte, where the pollution threatens the region's drinking-water supply.