In states like North Carolina, splitting up county-wide school systems often results in unequal access to resources separated down racial lines. By Barry Yeoman.

Thomas Farr will get a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. By Ari Berman.

Inmates killed two people and injured 10 more as they set fires and attempted a prison break Thursday, officials said. Fires were set in the sewing plant at Pasquotank Correctional Institution in Elizabeth City, the state Department of Public Safety said Thursday afternoon. The high-security prison has a capacity of 896 inmates and was housing 729 on Thursday, authorities said.

A driver is OK but a North Carolina road was blocked for hours after a truck carrying 40,000 pints of vodka overturned on Thursday. The accident happened in Clayton, North Carolina near U.S. Highway 70 and Shotwell Road around 5:45 a.m. NBC station WRAL reports that the truck's cab and trailer were disconnected to try and get the rig upright, but the vodka shipment was so heavy that crews had to unload it pallet by pallet.

It is easy to think of wars from earlier centuries in rather simplistic terms, especially as they fade further into the past. The American Civil is usually seen in terms of North versus South, Union versus Confederate, pro-slavery versus abolition

While Oath Keepers identifies itself as “libertarian” and “constitutionalist” — a seemingly awkward fit with Trump’s flamboyant authoritarianism — the militia network is unmistakably aligned with the new president, fielding what they call “roving security teams” at Trump’s inauguration. By Jordan Green.

Legislation to legalize the sale of mimosas, bloody mary cocktails and other alcoholic beverages at Sunday morning brunch in North Carolina was approved by the state Senate on Thursday afternoon. It now is pending in the House. The bill, Senate Bill 155, would make several major changes to North Carolina’s alcohol laws...

Secretary birds in the Carolinas? Crazier things have happened. By Sarah Emerson.

The ruling is the latest in a series of decisions against the excessive use of race in redistricting. The court has said Republican lawmakers have gone too far in packing black voters into some districts. By Richard Wolf.

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A white supremacist with felony convictions in South Carolina bought a gun from an undercover FBI agent, telling the agent he planned an attack in "the spirit of Dylann Roof," authorities said Thursday. Benjamin McDowell, 29, was arrested in Myrtle Beach shortly after buying the .40-caliber Glock and ammunition for $109 from the agent who picked him up at his mother's house, then took him to his grandfather's house to get the money, FBI agent Grant Lowe wrote in an affidavit.

North Carolina attracted legions of new workers on the promise of a progressive lifestyle in the New South. But they feel betrayed by a dramatic political shift.

In young democracies—say, in the former Soviet Union—politicians’ views of the proper power of any given office often depend on their chances of occupying it. In North Carolina, this constitutional sabotage has re-energised protesters who for several years have objected to the legislature’s reactionary initiatives...

Republican lawmakers introduced measures to end the governor’s control over election boards and to require State Senate approval of his cabinet members. By Trip Gabriel.

North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, champion of the country’s most notorious anti-LGBTQ law, lost his bid for re-election on Nov. 8—at last count, by 7,448 votes. Yet nearly two weeks later, McCrory still refuses to concede. Instead… By Mark Joseph Stern.

ZZT developer and Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney has reportedly paid $15 million to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to permanently protect 7,000 acres of undeveloped land in his home state of North Carolina. This donation, earmarked as a "conservation easement" (which typically require landowners to forfeit the right to develop, subdivide, or otherwise interfere with the preservation of a natural landscape), is a nice example of how a successful member of the game industry might invest some of their wealth in a way that benefits others.

Wildfires burning across the South have created a smoky haze over metro Atlanta and prompted a public health advisory in Kentucky — and the forests are expected to continue burning for days as flaming leaves fall to the ground and spread the fire, authorities said Wednesday. In Georgia,...

The party sent a press release to reporters on Sunday trumpeting the fact that fewer black voters cast early ballots this year than they did in 2012. "African American Early Voting is down 8.5% from this time in 2012," the release read. "As a share of Early Voters, African Americans are down 6.0%." The statement also cheered the rise in white voters as compared to 2012. "The once dynamic Obama Coalition [is] crumbling and tired," said Robing Hayes, the North Carolina GOP chairman, saying the party's "motivated statewide volunteers and extensive ground game" are the reason for the good news.

I wandered around awkwardly, thinking about the left’s shortcomings, missed opportunities. Shouldn’t many of these folks have been with Bernie? By Astra Taylor.

Mass purging of black Democrats from voter rolls and African Americans’ low early voting turnout raises concerns for Hillary Clinton supporters in swing states. By Sabrina Siddiqui and Richard Luscombe.