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North Carolina

Duke Energy Flexes Political Muscle On Fracked Gas, Coal Ash

May 29, 2016 Sue Sturgis, www.southernstudies.org , ,
By Sue Sturgis for Facing South. Duke Energy is facing serious regulatory battles in its home state of North Carolina, with climate-action groups doggedly trying to block the company's planned fracked gas plant in Asheville and the state's environmental agency recently deciding — at least temporarily — that all of the company's coal ash impoundments must be excavated and the waste moved to safer dry storage. But the power giant is fighting back with the help of friends in high places. Duke Energy is among the most powerful political forces in the state, with a team of top-rated lobbyists and a generous political giving program. From 2013 through 2016, the company's political action committee spent over $578,000 on North Carolina elections, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. In the first quarter of this year alone, it made over $200,000 in contributions to state legislative candidates.

Federal Judge Upholds ‘Discriminatory’ NC Voter ID Law

April 27, 2016 Nika Knight, www.commondreams.org , ,
By Nika Knight for Common Dreams - North Carolina's sweeping and controversial election reform law, HB 589, was upheld on Monday by a federal judge in Winston-Salem, prompting vows to appeal from the plaintiffs who allege that the legislation's dramatic voting restrictions widely disenfranchise minority voters. "The sweeping barriers imposed by this law undermine voter participation and have an overwhelmingly discriminatory impact on African-Americans. This ruling does not change that reality. We are already examining an appeal," said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, in a statement.

Repealing ‘Hate Bill 2’; Protesters Welcome Back NC Lawmakers

April 26, 2016 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org , , ,
By Deirdre Fulton for Common Dreams - The legislation, which opponents say is unconstitutional, requires that transgender people use bathrooms that match the sex on their birth certificates, and forbids cities and counties from enacting their own ordinances to prohibit discrimination against lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender people. Lambda Legal, the ACLU, and the ACLU of North Carolina are fighting the law in federal court. More than 100 business executives, President Barack Obama, and countless social justice warriors have denounced HB 2.

HB2 Protests, Rallies Expected On NC General Assembly Opening Day

April 25, 2016 ANNE BLYTHE AND COLIN CAMPBELL, www.newsobserver.com ,
By Anne Blythe And Colin Campbell for The News and Observer - As critics of House Bill 2 mapped out their plans for the opening day of the General Assembly’s new session, Chris Sgro, head of North Carolina’s leading gay-rights organization, took an oath of office on Sunday that moved him from being a protester on the outside of the legislative body to becoming a member. When lawmakers sound the gavel on Monday evening to signal the start of business, Sgro, a Greensboro resident and executive director of Equality NC, will join the General Assembly as its only openly gay member.

Protesters Flood Streets As Discrimination Law Backlash Grows

March 31, 2016 Nika Knight, www.commondreams.org , , ,
By Nika Knight for Common Dreams - "If we don't get no justice, then they don't get no peace!" was the rallying cry echoing in the streets of downtown Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for hours on Tuesday. Hundreds of anti-discrimination activists flooded the streets and stopped traffic through the afternoon and evening in a planned protest against the state's sweeping, unprecedented anti-LGBTQ legislation signed into law last week.

Newsletter: Justice Takes A Lifetime

March 19, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The #BlackLivesMatter movement continues to grow its power and have notable victories, but 600 hundred years of racial oppression, older than the nation itself, will not be rooted out quickly. The movement had a series of electoral and other victories this week. These victories for #BLM and their supporters are notable but problems still persist and the movement must continue to grow and get stronger. There are no quick fixes to a country that is crippled by its history of racism. We must all recognize that the work we are doing for racial, economic and environmental justice requires us to be persistent and uncompromising. achieve the transformational justice we seek will last our lifetimes – a marathon and not a sprint.

North Carolina Sheriff’s Deputies Disciplined Over Trump Rally

March 18, 2016 Staff, www.huffingtonpost.com , ,
By Staff of Reuters - Five North Carolina Sheriff’s deputies have been disciplined over their behavior at a rally for Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump where a white supporter sucker punched a black protester, officials said on Wednesday. The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said three deputies were demoted and suspended for five days each without pay for their unsatisfactory performance at last week’s rally while the two others were suspended for three days.

Protests Against Duke Energy Blocking Solar Energy in NC

March 9, 2016 Alex Kotch, www.desmogblog.com , , ,
By Alex Kotch for Desmog - Around the nation, big utility companies are successfully lobbying lawmakers and regulators to restrict individual and corporate access to solar power, denying people significant savings on electricity bills and the opportunity to take part in the growing green energy economy. In third-party solar financing, a non-utility company installs solar panels on a customer’s property at little or no up-front cost, sometimes selling the solar energy back to the customer at rates typically lower than a utility would charge.

Thousands Rally In N. Carolina For ‘Moral Imperative’ Of Voting Rights

February 15, 2016 Jon Queally, www.commondreams.org , ,
By Jon Queally for Common Dreams - Thousands of people marched and rallied in the frigid streets of Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday morning to demand a restoration of voting rights and voice broad support for a new progressive agenda to counter the current policies of Gov. Pat McCrory and the Republican-controlled state legislature. Organized by the Move Forward Together Movement and the North Carolina Chapter of the NAACP, led by Rev. William Barber III, the demonstration attracted a diverse coalition of individuals and organizations who say the systematic attack on state services...

10th Annual Moral March On Raleigh HKonJ People’s Assembly

February 5, 2016 Staff, wwwhkonj.com , ,
By Staff of HKONJ - Our legislators are systematically seeking to abridge and suppress our vote and disrespect the rivers of blood which made our vote possible - we will mobilize like never before and cast ballots like never before. We will vote those who will pass just and moral policies that help the "least of these" and those who are most oppressed. The Moral March on Raleigh is part of a love and justice movement. We LOVE justice in Education; We LOVE Economic Sustainability, We LOVE Workers and Workers' Rights and Livable Wages...

NC Town Called ‘Ground Zero’ In Offshore Drilling Fight

January 27, 2016 Sue Sturgis, www.southernstudies.org , ,
By Sue Sturgis for The Institute for Changing Studies - Two years ago this month, more than 300 residents of Kure Beach, North Carolina (pop. 2,000), packed town hall to voice their anger with then-Mayor Dean Lambeth's decision to sign a letter supporting seismic testing for offshore oil and gas deposits. The letter was written by America's Energy Forum, a project of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s leading trade association. That contentious meeting was the spark that ignited a growing grassroots movement against the Obama administration's proposal to open an area off the coasts of Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia to oil and gas development.

Winnemem Wintu Fight For Cultural Survival In Northern California

October 8, 2015 Rucha Chitnis, www.indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com ,
By Rucha Chitnis for Indian Country Today Media Network, At a sacred fire in the ancient village site in Coonrod, Chief Caleen Sisk raised a glass of ceremonial water towards a soaring Mount Shasta. The Winnemem Wintu Tribe members gathered for a Fire and Water ceremony at sunrise to pray for the return of their revered salmon and for the health of their sacred spring in Mount Shasta and surrounding waterways. “Salmon are life. They bring life, and they should be back on this land again,” said Chief Sisk, spiritual leader of her tribe. The Winnemem Wintu are known as the Middle Water People, their identity tied spiritually to a sacred spring on Mount Shasta, a river that once flowed here unfettered and the Chinook salmon that flourished in the waters.

North Carolina Bans Local Fracking Bans

October 6, 2015 Bertrand M. Gutiérrez, www.journalnow.com ,
By Bertrand M. Gutiérrez for Winston-Salem Journal - State lawmakers approved a bill in the final hours of the general session last week that includes a provision aimed at countering the moratoria passed by local governments, including Stokes County, on potential hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the drilling method used to extract shale gas or oil. A provision in Senate Bill 119 describes as “invalidated and unenforceable” local ordinances that place conditions on fracking that go beyond those restrictions already set by state oil-and-gas regulations. Lawmakers passed the bill mostly along party lines, with Republicans supporting, days after the Stokes County commissioners unanimously approved a moratorium on oil-and-gas operations for three years — time the commissioners say the county will need to review land-use rules aimed at boosting environmental protections if fracking ever happens there.

This Is Our Selma

July 14, 2015 Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II , www.huffingtonpost.com , , , , ,
By Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II in The Huffington Post - In 2006 the U.S. Senate unanimously voted to re-authorize the prized 1964 Voting Rights Act and President George W. Bush signed it. After the first Black President won two elections, five U.S. Supreme Court justices over-ruled 98 senators and gutted the law. Their ruling, called Shelby, two years ago opened the floodgates, giving the green light to state legislators throughout the South. One North Carolina state senator even declaring that Shelby had removed the "headache" of pre-clearance. The right wing that had seized Mr. Lincoln's party was turned loose to wage war on our sacred right to vote.

Judge Says No To Fracking

May 23, 2015 Anastasia Pantsios, www.ecowatch.com , , , ,
A judge in North Carolina has blocked the start of fracking in that state over a challenge to the membership of the commission charged with issuing the permits. “Finally some good news in our long battle to keep fracking out of NC!” exulted North Carolina environmental nonprofit Haw River Assembly, one of the parties to the lawsuit, on its Facebook page. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) was granted the preliminary injunction it sought in Wake County Superior Court to delay the state’s Energy and Mining Commission from taking any action on permits, effectively reinstating (for the time being) the state’s longtime moratorium on fracking which was lifted by the legislature last summer.
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