The 2012 election season is gearing up to be extremely contentious. North Carolina is once again a battleground state and the gloves are already off in the fight for Tar Heel votes. Republican legislators are using a special political strategy that would allow the legislature to submit their redistricting plan to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. instead of the Justice Department. Their tactic would also let the legislature take the State’s Attorney General, Democrat Roy Cooper, off the case.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.