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With the addition of another candidate to the third congressional district race, North Carolina U.S. Rep. Walter Jones will be facing a familiar foe in 2016. This familiar face will likely be accompanied by the familiar obstacles that could keep this eastern coastal district in the incumbent's favor. Late last week, Taylor Griffin, who lost a primary to Jones 51-45 in 2014, announced he was running again. A renewed Griffin candidacy was long speculated, but there had been no official movement u

On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the constitutionality of independent redistricting commissions to redraw electoral districts. The ruling was a major victory for voters, because it also validated the citizen initiative process and the voter's right to decide how they are governed. But the legal battle over redistricting is far from over. Politico reported Tuesday that major litigation remains in key battleground states ahead of the 2016 elections. Continued redistrictin

Almost one year away from the 2016 primary, one North Carolina representative is already facing a primary challenge. Since beginning his opposition to the Iraq war, U.S. Rep. Walter Jones of the 3rd district -- and one of the more independent members of Congress -- has been a thorn in the side of his party and its leadership. In 2012, Jones was stripped of his position on the House Financial Services Committee and in 2014 faced the toughest primary challenge of his political career. Winning tha

Since the movement launched in 2006, National Popular Vote has made significant progress to reform the way Americans elect their president. The group's plan involves a state-by-state approach. States that join the National Popular Voter Interstate Compact (NPVIC) agree that rather than having their electors cast their ballots for president according to whichever candidate won the most votes in their respective states, the electors will instead vote for the candidate who won the most votes natio

Another racist tragedy reminds us that 150 years after the end of the civil war, America still has a minority that it has failed to integrate, with fatal consequences. Although some of the members of this minority are unusually educated and privileged outliers, we rarely see them with their hands on the levers of power; we rarely see them in control of large companies or wherever else there is great wealth; their neighborhoods tend to be poorer than those of the rest of the nation; when its men

We are starting to hear ritualistic grumblings from the Federal Reserve that they are preparing to raise interest rates, in order to stave-off inflation. And yet, anyone who buys groceries, energy, and gasoline knows deep inside that we have had serious inflation, and that it seems harder and harder to stay on an even playing field, let alone to get ahead these days. Every poll validates that the overwhelming majority of Americans can sense our economy is not nearly as rosy as we are being told

A new North Carolina law aiming to protect court officials' religious freedoms may create a stumbling block for not only same-sex couples wanting to marry, but all couples who want to get hitched. Senate Bill 2 became law earlier this month, allowing magistrates to recuse themselves from performing marriages, and assistant and deputy registers of deeds to choose not to issue marriage licenses. Though the law does not specifically reference same-sex marriage, LGBT advocates say the move clearly

Last week, the General Assembly in North Carolina sent a bill (HB 405) to the desk of Governor Pat McCrory that is directed at thwarting undercover investigations that expose businesses' wrongdoing. The bill is the latest episode in a perennial back-and-forth dispute between the legislature and investigators documenting animal abuse at farms across the state. In recent years, North Carolina has failed several times to pass a bill criminalizing such investigations.The so-called "Property Protect

Art Pope and the Republican Revolution In 2010, Art Pope, the CEO of Variety Wholesalers – a discount store chain – began pouring money into statewide races in North Carolina. One of his groups, Real Jobs NC, helped pay for attack ads targeting Democrats. According to a lengthy profile of Art Pope by The New Yorker, Pope and allied groups spent $2.2 million on the 2010 legislative election. In the end, of the 22 races he targeted, 18 were won by Republicans. For the first time since 1870, both

Hog Country In 1993, when Elsie Herring returned to the property that her grandfather – a former slave – purchased back in 1891, she discovered she had a rather odorous neighbor. In the 1980s, a hog farmer set up an operation on an adjacent property, complete with two barns, a lagoon (a man-made pond for pig waste), and a spray field. The spray field is where hoses pump the animal excrement when emptying the lagoons: the edge of this particular spray field is just eight feet from her home. Els