Asking for a 16.7% rate increase from residential customers:

The increase includes Duke’s request to recover almost $680 million from customers for the money spent since 2015 cleaning up the utility’s coal-ash ponds at eight current and former coal-powered plants in North and South Carolina.

And the filing says Duke will ask the N.C. Utilities Commission to cancel plans for Duke’s proposed Lee Nuclear Station and let Duke charge N.C. customers for the state’s share of more than $540 million in planning and pre-construction costs the utility has already spent on the project. That will be detailed in a separate filing.

Aside from being costly mistakes made by the utility itself, neither one of those things will provide an additional kilowatt of energy for our state. Nothing. If you walked into a Belks or even a Harris Teeter and were greeted with a sign that said, "We made some stupid decisions so now we've raised our prices by almost 17%! Have a nice day!" You would probably turn around and walk right out. But you can't walk out of Duke Energy. If we ever needed the NCUC to stand up and do what's right, this is it.

AS LEGISLATURE BUMBLES AND DELAYS ON REDISTRICTING, COURT NEEDS TO BE SWIFT AND DECISIVE: What has become amply clear is that the legislative leadership is doing as little as possible to comply with the federal court’s redistricting order. Rather than take the opportunity to actively inform and involve the public in the process, legislators have been content to do the least they can get away with. As anyone who sought to follow Tuesday’s public hearings learned, the many technical glitches and disorganization reflected a token effort at best by legislators who obviously have their minds made up. There are even Republican legislators, knowing what was coming even before the latest plans were disclosed, who already have announced future political plans. It’s clear the skids are greased and the public hearings were merely for show. The people of North Carolina deserve better.
http://www.wral.com/editorial-as-legislature-bumbles-and-delays-on-redistricting-court-needs-to-be-s...

Corrupt DA's exit leaves prosecutor's office ineffective and the people unprotected:

Jacqueline Perez was appointed interim district attorney for Caswell and Person counties following the abrupt resignation of District Attorney Wallace Bradsher, who is accused of defrauding the state through a scheme in which he and former Rockingham County District Attorney Craig Blitzer allegedly hired each other’s wives for “no-show” positions.

Perez wrote in Barker’s dismissal that there was “insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution” because the state’s motion to continue the trial was denied. She added, “The district attorney’s office contacted the victim and he told the state he was not coming back to North Carolina to prosecute the case.”

Yes, this is the same guy who recently told the Latino reporter, "We're gonna burn you out, to me you're a n****r. Hey, we killed six million Jews the last time, eleven million (meaning undocumented immigrants) is nothing." He also applauded the guy who ran over Heather Heyer in Charlottesville. But to refresh your memory, here is what he did to get the felony aiding and abetting charge, which actually should have been conspiracy to commit murder: