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Packed houses are expected at two public meetings this week about a second proposed natural gas pipeline in North Carolina. MVP Southgate and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are holding events tonight in Burlington at the Palladium, 1272 Plaza Drive, from 5:30 to 7:30. The second meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at the Reidsville Event Center, 223 S. Scales St., also from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

GOP lawmakers want North Carolinians to make sweeping, permanent changes to the state Constitution and trust them to sort out the details of it all later.

The legislature considered four constitutional amendment proposals yesterday and voted to move along two of them and continue discussing the other two.

The lump started small and hid behind her ear. Harmless, the doctor said, nothing to worry about.

So Taylor Wind, then 14, went about her business, attending high school, hanging out with friends and enjoying life in her neighborhood on the shores of Lake Norman in Iredell County.

Would that North Carolina lawmakers had been so direct as “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman, a virulent white supremacist from South Carolina who, in February 1900, told his colleagues on the U.S. Senate floor that the South’s methodical disenfranchisement of African Americans was, in fact, some sort of triumph.

The Senate voted along party lines Tuesday night to overturn a partial judicial redistricting bill in an apparent attempt to flex its political muscle at Gov. Roy Cooper.

Viola Williams has been crunching numbers and working out possible solutions since last week, when the General Assembly fast-tracked a controversial bill that makes sweeping changes to early voting.

“I’m speechless.” So began the heartfelt lament of Rep. Verla Insko (D-Orange) late last Friday afternoon as the veteran representative—a rare lawmaker of deep intellect and genuine compassion for the less fortunate in our society—rose to address yet another backroom deal on a matter of complexity and importance that would make life appreciably worse for a group of our society’s lowliest citizens: mentally ill prisoners.

It’s not over till it’s over, and all eyes are now on North Carolina to carry on the partisan gerrymandering fight after the U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped two opportunities from other states to intervene. The court released two highly-anticipated opinions Monday: Gil v. Whitford, a challenge to Republican partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin, and Benisek v. Lamone, a challenge to a Democratic partisan gerrymander in Maryland.

With midterm elections around the corner, lawmakers have, unsurprisingly, taken aim at last minute changes that would affect voters at the polls. Senate Bill 325 eliminates the last early voting Saturday before this year’s elections and create uniform early voting hours across the state. It was sent to the Governor’s Office Friday. Legislators have also introduced a constitutional amendment that would require voters to present a photo identification before casting a ballot. It’s expected to be voted on next week.

On May 25, the news headlines read that Democratic state Senate candidate Jen Mangrum had been disqualified from her bid to unseat Sen. Phil Berger, arguably the most powerful state lawmaker in North Carolina. Republicans had challenged Mangrum’s residency in Berger’s district near the Virginia line, and a panel of election officials from Berger’s Senate District 30 voted on party lines to oust Mangrum...

If it seemed impossible that neighbors of industrialized hog farms had any legal rights left to lose, a new version of the N.C. Farm Act strips those residents of any ability to sue industrialized hog farms for nuisance. After being amended six times Wednesday, the Farm Act, also known as Senate Bill 711, is on the verge of becoming law, even though several Republicans broke rank and opposed the measure.

In another effort to pander to the minority of Americans who want to make abortion and birth control inaccessible, President Trump has again used women’s health to cynically play politics.

Can you put a price tag on victims' rights? A fiscal note obtained by NC Policy Watch that has been kept confidential for the past year would indicate that you can – and a hefty one at that. The fiscal note, dated February 8, 2017, from the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), estimates that a change to the victim rights section of the state constitution -- a multi-part proposal known as known as Marsy’s Law -- would cost the courts $16.4 million to implement and $30.5 million annually in subsequent years for additional district attorney staff.

A new bill to relocate the “Silent Sam” Confederate monument on UNC’s flagship Chapel Hill campus aims to be a compromise in the contentious, decades-long fight over the statue.

The practice of loading down noncontroversial legislation with divisive and partisan provisions is an all-too-common phenomenon at the modern North Carolina General Assembly. When former North Carolina senator Angela Bryant unloaded on this year’s class-size funding ceasefire, the characteristically blunt Democrat...