Search results for

Leslie McCrae Dowless died on April 24th. The Bladen County native came to national notoriety for his role in a 2018 election fraud saga. On this episode of the Politics Podcast, WBTV reporter Nick Ochsner discusses the electoral scandal and the well known character behind it.

This week in politics: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court and is set to become the first Black woman to sit on the court in its 233-year history; a preliminary proposal at the state level could shift how public school teachers are licensed and compensated; And former President Donald Trump visits Johnston County on Saturday in the latest reminder of his domineering shadow over Republican Party politics.

When is the last time you read the North Carolina constitution? It’s an exercise generally reserved for the ... most passionate political followers. So, it may come as a surprise that our state still has a literacy test on the books. On The Politics Podcast, a law professor and state legislator explain why a literacy test — even if not enforceable — remains the law in North Carolina and what efforts are underway to remove it.

Democratic Governor Roy Cooper rolled out his spending proposal this week. He asks again for Medicaid expansion and sizable teacher raises. And in the wake of our nation’s latest mass shooting, what – if anything – would help to reduce gun deaths in our country? Rob Schofield and Becki Gray review the week in politics.

Since unfounded claims of election fraud proliferated last November, proposals to change election law have surfaced in nearly every state house in the country. Some restrict voting access while others expand a voter's ability to cast a ballot. On the latest WUNC Politics Podcast: why North Carolina has largely avoided controversy on this issue and a look at existing proposals from around the country.

In the wake of mass shootings in Atlanta, Democratic State Senator Jay Chaudhuri has renewed a push for a hate crime law in North Carolina. Will this legislation get a hearing? Plus, a resolution to call for a constitutional convention and set Congressional term limits advanced at the General Assembly this week. And Cheri Beasley will soon announce her candidacy seeking the Democratic nomination for a 2022 U.S. Senate race. Aisha Dew and Clark Riemer offer insights on some of the biggest political developments of the week.

More than half of North Carolina’s counties are considered a news desert – with depleted local journalism. On this episode of The Politics Podcast: what could be done to fill the news void and how the emergence of social media has reshaped how politicians share their message.

Guest host Will Michaels returns from a reporting trip to Elizabeth City, NC where a community is contending with the recent police killing of Andrew Brown Jr. There is body camera footage of the incident, but who gets to see the tape and how much of it is made available is up to a controversial state law. | Support this show with a donation at wunc.org/give.

A voter ID law is on trial again in North Carolina. Is it in line with the Constitution this time? Or is it once again targeting Black voters? Guest host Will Michaels talks to reporter Rusty Jacobs about the history of voter ID in the state and what arguments activists, lawyers and lawmakers have made before the court in the past two weeks. | Support this show with a donation to wunc.org/give.

Synthesizing American history is not a simple exercise. What periods, figures, and narratives should emerge in public school classrooms, and who gets to decide? Republicans are decrying some educational standards as having a leftist bent, lacking patriotism. While educators, and advocates for a more complete narrative say we must trust the teachers. On this episode of The Politics Podcast teaching our complicated history to our youth.