The failure of Congress to slash the national deficit threatens to cascade from Washington straight into North Carolina's schools, stores and doctor's offices.

Automatic spending cuts - triggered by the lack of agreement in Congress over ways to reduce the more than $1.2 trillion deficit - will begin in 2013 and could mean:

An estimated 9 percent cut in the $417 million that Duke University gets from the National Institute of Health to research cures for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's, alternative energy and national security.

The loss of federal funds for public schools with large populations of low-income students. In Cabarrus County, for example, that means the school system could lose money that pays for a series of federal programs, including $210,000 in Title 1 funding, which helps low-income schools hire teachers and assistants to reduce class sizes, improve computer labs, purchase supplies, and increase teacher training.

And the death of mom-and-pop shops in military towns like Fayetteville that could lose $351 million in defense contracts and tens of millions in civilian payroll.

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As Charlotte and North Carolina take the national spotlight for this year's Democratic National Convention, one area will get particular scrutiny: the region's climate for gays and lesbians.

September's convention comes on the heels of a statewide ballot question in May, where voters will decide whether a ban on same-sex marriage should be written into North Carolina's constitution.

The timing highlights a possible source of tension come DNC time: Will lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) visitors feel welcome here? And what impressions of Charlotte will they take back with them to the rest of the nation?

"There's the potential that we're going to be greeted to the state with another one of those heinous marriage amendments," said Jerame Davis, interim executive director with the D.C.-based National Stonewall Democrats, a grassroots Democratic gay-rights organization. "That's definitely not putting out the welcome mat to LGBT people coming to the state."

A predicted record number of gay and lesbian delegates will come to a city that recently elected its first openly gay city council member. Yet Charlotte does not have a long-sought city council policy that would extend benefits to domestic partners READ FULL POST 3 COMMENTS

A federal judge's decision Thursday to reject a request from John Edwards to toss out criminal charges against him could open 2012 with a high-profile trial testing the sweep of election law.

The case could include a cast of characters whose lives have been the subject of tabloid journalism, tell-all books and national intrigue.

It could also be a well-watched curtain-raiser of the 2012 political showdown in North Carolina, a battleground state in the presidential race and the place where Democrats plan to hold their national convention in September.

Edwards, 58, could be the first former presidential candidate brought to trial on accusations that he violated campaign finance laws by secretly obtaining and using contributions from two wealthy supporters to hide his mistress and her pregnancy from the public during his unsuccessful bid for president in 2008.

Not only could the case highlight the campaign tactics of a former presidential candidate at a time when the two primary parties are trying to hone their messages in an important election year, it also could turn the focus toward a Republican prosecutor with political ambitions of his own.

On Thursday, after Judge Catherine Eagles issued her rulings in open court, Edwards said he was not surprised by her unwillingness to dismiss the case ...

Early on, Occupy Raleigh had the look and feel of a 1960s peace rally, with songs by Pete Seeger, Gil Scot Heron and John Lennon blaring from loudspeakers. A crowd that resembled a family gathering streamed from the old State Capitol grounds and onto Fayetteville Street, chanting “Wall Street got a bailout and we got sold out!” and “How do you solve the deficit? End the war! Tax the rich!”

But by late afternoon Saturday, after most of the crowd had dispersed, about 200 protestors debated whether to stay overnight in the park, like their counterparts in New York and other cities, and risk arrest. After nightfall, police arrested 19 people and charged them with second-degree trespassing.

The N.C. Department of Administration permit for the rally allowed protestors to be on the grounds for four hours, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. State officials denied Occupy Raleigh’s request to use the grounds over the next three weeks.

At Occupy Raleigh’s peak, hundreds of people gathered on the south side of the State Capitol in solidarity with the anti-corporate movement that began last month on Wall Street and has now spread across the country.

The occupy movement say its represents the 99 percent of Americans who control 57 percent of the country’s financial wealth. They say the 1 percent make decisions that take away their jobs, homes and access to health care.

Tricia Robertson and Christina Tademy drove to Raleigh from Martinsville, Va., where both women lost their jobs last year when the company they worked for went out of business. Robertson said Well Fargo, whose downtown building loomed in front of her, took her home in May because she did not qualify for a loan modification. “I didn’t quit my job,” Robertson’s sign read. “My job quit me.”

Traci Barger, a 38-year-old Raleigh mother of three children, told the crowd she was a single mom, attending school and ...

Already a killer storm, Irene sloshed through the New York metropolitan area Sunday, briefly flooding parts of the city and severing power to a million people but not provoking the doomsday urban disaster that had been feared.

Diminished to a tropical storm and racing to its own overnight demise in New England and Canada, Irene killed at least 18 people in six states. More than 4.5 million customers lost power along the East Coast and well inland. Initial property damage estimates ranged up to $7 billion.

And it was not over yet.

“Many Americans are still at serious risk of power outages and flooding, which could get worse in coming days as rivers swell past their banks…,” President Barack Obama said Sunday evening. “There are a lot of communities that are still being affected.”

Irene dumped immense amounts of rain on a region already saturated by summer downpours. Many communities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, upstate New York, Connecticut, Vermont and elsewhere endured life-threatening floods and toppling trees.

State and local authorities warned of more to come and they begged residents not to become complacent. It takes some time for rain runoff to accumulate, they said, tree roots were weakening in the over-moist soil and the danger will not end for days.

“Stay inside,” Gov. Chris Christie told New Jersey residents. “The real issue that we’re going to have to deal with now is flooding. We’re going to experience major flooding. Some rivers haven’t crested yet, and it’s still raining.”

Christie noted at least 300 road closures and obstructions across his state, though he said the New Jersey Turnpike and bridges were clear, so tree-clearing equipment was on its way. Deep floods swamped portions of Hackensack, Westwood, Ridgewood, Hillsdale and other communities in New Jersey.

In New York City, ocean water invaded some beachside ...

Already a killer storm, Hurricane Irene sloshed into the New York metropolitan area Sunday, adhering to a course that pushed mountains of seawater - and vast volumes of rain - into the city, many of its suburbs and much of the surrounding region.

"The flooding will be epic and there will be water in places you never dreamed," said forecaster Eric Blake of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Even before Irene reached one of the nation's most heavily populated regions, at least eight deaths were attributed to the storm, a summer weekend terror that clung to, ravaged and swamped the East Coast from North Carolina all the way to New England.

Outages cut power to more than two million customers, complicating efforts to prepare for or recover from the storm. Trees crashed to the ground and roofs flew away and sea water invaded buildings once thought safely distant from the coast.

Meteorologists said Irene's core made a second landfall near Little Egg Inlet, N.J., north of Atlantic City, at 5:35 a.m. Sunday, as a minimal Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph sustained wind. It weakened slightly into a high-end tropical storm as the center reached New York City at 9 a.m., with 65 mph wind.

Irene's course carried the center right along New Jersey's coast, completely through or perilously close to the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, and then into Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and points north. Tornado warnings flashed through the region.

Manhattan's usually busy streets were eerily empty, few people in sight, the entire city pounded by gray sheets of rain and bursts of wind that swirled around tall buildings and sought paths of escape. Rising water blocked several roads and intersections.

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers evacuated homes near the shore. At least one hospital closed, moving patients to locations farther from sources of flooding. The city's vast subway and ...

Buses dropped off workers from Columbia, along the Scuppernong River and Albemarle Sound, at Red Cross emergency shelters in Rocky Mount and Wilson on Friday afternoon, ahead of Hurricane Irene.

Fifty-two workers came to the Rocky Mount shelter at Englewood Baptist Church, on one bus arranged by their employer, Captain Charlie’s Seafood, Inc. The evacuees are primarily from Mexico, working in the state on a six-month contract with the company.

The 52 workers joined 23 other evacuees who stayed in the Rocky Mount shelter Thursday night. The shelter will continue to take in people throughout the weekend, despite already being over capacity.

“We will let them in and do what we can do for them,” said Ron Ashby, the Red Cross volunteer working at the shelter. “We won’t turn anybody away ... we’ll just take it as it comes.”

None of the workers speak English; the Red Cross had to call in an interpreter, Edith Serrano, from Nash County Department of Social Services to register them and collect emergency contact and family information.

When the county called her in to assist, Serrano was expecting to encounter four or five migrant workers, not a bus load.

“When I got into that room, I was like ‘Whoa, a whole room packed with Hispanic women,’“ she said.

Registering the evacuees took about two hours, and she stayed to assist Red Cross volunteers at the shelter throughout the day to make announcements and let the workers know when meals would arrive. Serrano said she’s not sure when or how all the workers will get back down to Columbia after the storm.

Mariana Sauceda, 52, along with her niece and some co-workers, were trying to nap on one of the cots set up in the Baptist church’s gym Friday afternoon.

She picks meat from oysters at Captain Charlie’s, and was glad she was evacuated from the shore.

“For them it’s good ...

People watching the news over the past week might have thought that Congress was the only place where battles for our future were being won and lost. That's wrong. There are other battles, better battles, battles far from the glare of the Beltway spotlights. And more are on their way.

So forget Washington for a minute. (If you feel like I do right now, that'll be a pleasure.) If you want to see where the next wave of corporate-sponsored political attacks is being launched, look to New Orleans. And if you want a shot of optimism, a ray of light, a sign that battles can be won against overwhelming odds, turn your eyes toward Wisconsin.

That's where the action is.

On Wisconsin

Al Gore said this week that we need an "American Spring." It would be a stroke of Carl Sandburg-ish poetry if we were to someday look back and see that the first signs of our spring appeared in Midwestern farm country. And if that image is too corny for your taste, remember: The corn harvest starts around now. I'm just getting an early start.

The Wisconsin uprising began when Gov. Scott Walker and the Republicans in the legislature began their ruthless attempt to strip unions of their rights in that state. They had every right to believe it would be easy. The Democrats had just been routed in their state and across the country, as voters discouraged by the lack of jobs and growth took their revenue on the ruling party. Walker and his colleagues thought they had found their "Shock Doctrine" moment in that state's budget crisis, and used it to strip unions of their collective bargaining rights because they claimed the state "couldn't afford" to pay their wages and benefits.

The unions offered Walker virtually all the concessions he wanted, which took the financial argument off the table, but he moved forward anyway. And then a miracle happened ... Voters who had accepted one injustice ...