Among all their other train wreck policies, the NC GOP has made it a priority to "reduce these burdensome regulations", meaning they've spent a lot of time and effort gutting environmental and human safety regulations because sometimes those get in the way of a little bit of additional money in corporate fatcats' pockets.

It hasn't taken all that long for the results of their corporate allegiance to come home to roost. No one knows if the tragic deck collapse on Emerald Isle might have been prevented, but we do know that thanks to Neal Hunt and the NC GOP, Emerald Isle officials have no opportunity to perform routine deck inspections. Because freedom And profits.

At issue is a 2011 state law that says towns may make periodic inspections of residential properties only when there is “reasonable cause” to believe unsafe conditions exist. Emerald Isle Town Manager Frank Rush said that law prevents the town from inspecting beach houses unless there’s a complaint.

Happy Anniversary! Today is the 1-year mark since WRAL requested public record emails from Guvnor Pat.

One year after WRAL News requested emails from Gov. Pat McCrory's office under North Carolina's public records law, his staff has so far failed to produce a single document.

Having doubled down on his lie of the year, Guvnor Pat keeps trying to insist that he didn't break his campaign promise about abortion. The trouble is, everyone knows he's lying. And the Democrats called him out on his lies.

Democrats have wasted no time jumping on Gov. Pat McCrory’s decision to sign the abortion bill, which triples the required waiting time.

Richard Burr called for a US citizen to be hunted down and killed.

Civil liberties groups raised concerns Monday about reports that U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, had called in 2013 for the CIA to hunt down and kill an American citizen who’d become a top al Qaida operative, rather than capturing him for trial.

Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh eventually was captured and the government now can make its case against him and appropriately punish him if he's convicted.

Former state Sen. Thom Goolsby is on quite a ride since he resigned from the NCGA. He received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine ("Gov. McCrory is bestowing one of NC’s highest honors on a former legislator who defrauded investors,” Progress NC Action tweeted.); he got himself appointed to the UNC Board of Governors by his old Senate colleagues ("Goolsby said he had asked Rabon to nominate him because he's an underhanded schemer who can help bring down higher education higher education is an issue he's very passionate about") and now Thom's got a new gig as a lobbyist for the Internet sweepstakes industry.

Goolsby, who resigned from the legislature last year, announced Thursday that he’ll serve as spokesman for the newly formed N.C. Small Business Coalition. Goolsby is also a registered lobbyist for the group, which is pushing the General Assembly to legalize, regulate and tax internet sweepstakes games.