Articles

By Francis De Luca and Susan Myrick What do President Barack Obama and a growing number of Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly have in common? The answer – their love of major solar energy companies – Big Solar, for short. As for the President – everyone remembers Solyndra. Before going bankrupt in 2011,...

  Environmentalists like to preach that all life is connected – but they themselves are connected in an intricate web of activists, groups, money and influence. And our revamped Mapping the Left site kicks off by unveiling a new network showing how these links are spread across North Carolina. As we at Civitas created the...

  If you’re a frequent visitor to Mapping the Left (mappingtheleft.com) you have watched the website go through a transformation in the last few weeks. The look is new and mappingtheleft.com has been redesigned with advanced capabilities. You will notice faster and more powerful, yet simple, searches, updated data, profiles and new photos.  We’ve even...

The physical resemblance is uncanny, but it’s not the only thing Jay Faison and Tom Steyer have in common. They both are wealthy political environmental activists who have decided they will spend their millions/billions to support the politics of environmentalism and the agenda of Big Solar – one influencing the power elite, the other unbelieving...

This is part two of a three-part series (click here for part 1) Susan Myrick It can be very difficult to grasp or visualize the vastness of the network of left-wing groups in North Carolina. But one way to start is with the key group on the left – and the family that dominates it....

This is part one of a three-part series Susan Myrick It can be very difficult to grasp or visualize the vastness of the network of left-wing groups in North Carolina. But one way to start is with the key group on the left, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation – and the family that dominates it....

http://youtu.be/S0AYKzBBFyI

Susan Myrick Z. Smith Reynolds, in a photo from the Reynolda House Museum of American Art. The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation hasn’t always been the largest funder of liberal activist organizations in North Carolina. But just as the Reynolds family moved away from the legacy of its founding patriarch, in time the foundation abandoned its...

In North Carolina, left-wing nonprofit advocacy groups for decades have wielded an alarming amount of power in the media, state politics, and government. They work together, both in loose coalitions and organized networks, to influence and control public policy. Only now, however, is there a user-friendly online database that sheds light on this vast, shadowy...